why I'm on on-line

This is a response to a recent post at "musings of middle age" ...taking inventory of just why I'm on-line.

blog: anonymous exhibitionism ...if nothing else.

email: I couldn't live without it (oddly enough, I hardly ever receive personal email at home).

shopping: I buy stuff not readily available locally (and frequently at better prices).

research: I soak up trivia like a sponge (but I'm not very good at regurgitating it). I'm the type who will look something up on Wikipedia if it's nagging me for more than 30 seconds.

IM: Messenger is to phone the way email is voice-mail... plus I can pretend I'm not there if someone messages me and I'm not in the mood to chat.

piracy: well... I'd rather not get into this. ^_^;

The region 2 experience

Well, after hemming and hawing a lot, I finally got around to getting an official legit DVD of the big-screen incarnation of Ultraman. In a weird circular way, this is the movie that made me come down hard on Media Blasters for releasing only a 2ch soundtrack on Masked Rider (it still think it sucks). See, this was the polar opposite of the Masked Rider remake - the director went full-speed with the FX and even had a fully CG aerial combat scene... perfect material for a surround sound mix.

Unfortunately, Japan's grasp of 5.1 sound mixing still isn't up to par with Hollywood. It's good... but it isn't great. And actually I detected a "wrong channel" moment when one of the beasts flew "behind me" on the right of the screen but the sound effect came from my left!

But still, after playing with decrypting the region 2 disc and finally managing to successfully burn the disc to a region free DVD so that I can watch this film on my home theatre... I go to bed satisfied.

The playoff finals are on

I just wanted to mention that although I never adopted the Ottawa Senators as "my team" (come on, I'm still a Montrealer at heart), I should mention that not even I'm immune to the hype. And besides, it's just good to see a Canadian team in the running for Lord Stanley's Cup...

Go Sens Go!

Civil War: Spider-Man (2for1)

There's no question that Spider-Man was one of the major players in the Civil War storyline. He almost represents the reader's point of view in that he starts out in the beginning at one end of the spectrum and slowly drifts to the other side as the Civil War events unravel. Given such a spotlight it's easy to forget that the actual page count featuring Spidey in the main arc amount to very little. In fact, in the first couple of issues, Spidey doesn't even figure into the story until Iron Man's news conference where he shockingly reveals his secret identity to the world in support of hero-registration. Enter the tie-ins... And for once, Marvel did it much better than the tie-ins in previous event-years (I'm looking at you, Avengers: Disassembled).

Civil War Amazing Spider-Man
This volume collects issues 532 to 538 of the monthly title that ran concurrently with main arc. Like the Fantastic Four book I looked at previously, the individual book takes a small plot line from the main arc and expands on it. In this case, that would be the public unmasking of Spider-Man.

In the months leading up to Civil War, Peter Parker had taken a job as Tony Stark's assistant (Amazing Spider-Man 529-531 can be found in The Road to Civil War). Tony not only took in his wife MJ and Aunt May, but also gave Peter a new hi-tech "Iron-Spider" suit. For once in his life, Peter was riding high on success. Peter follows Tony around as an executive assistant and is thus drawn in when Tony reveals to the government that he is Iron Man ...giving Peter a chance to do the same. This collection explores the reasons behind Peter's decision to unmask, his interactions with wife MJ and Aunt May, and the reaction from the world around him in the aftermath of his appearance on television. And interesting editorial decision is to skip over all the events where Spider-Man appears within the main arc: the plot goes right up to his decision to break away from Iron Man's pro-registration faction (where he goes fist to fist with Tony) and escapes into the sewars, but then jumps right to his reunion with MJ and May after they've gone into hiding.

Review Bullets:

• Robbie Robertson undergoes the "editor doesn't care" treatment here. He's back to his trim middle-aged man look (whereas his appearance in Frontline resembles more his movie-counterpart played by Bill Nunn).
• Jameson is downright nasty in this account of the unmasking. He's not comically falling out of his chair, but played straight-arrow. Not only does he fire Peter (and considers suing him for fraud) but we also get a look at how he really feels about Peter Parker and we realize how he feels betrayed by Peter.
• Peter gets a phone call from the Fantastic Four's Reed and Sue Richards... what they talk about is important and ties in several places later on. MJ and Sue's friendship in particular is followed-up in the other monthly that was running at the time.
• I haven't followed the Kingpin of Crime much but I do know that Daredevil eventually took down Fisk and he's now in jail... after the unmasking, Fisk is featured in a plot where he hires a hit-man to go after the Parker family... it's again one of those things the main arc glossed over because we were busy following Cap and Iron Man go to blows against each other.

Civil War: Peter Parker The Sensational Spider-Man
A quick opening note: when I first leafed through this collection, I was afraid it was like Captain America Disassembled where they haphazardly threw together different stories. They havent; this collection covers consecutive issues 28 thru 34 of Sensational Spider-Man which pick up the plot just after Peter's unmasking and explores the lives of the people closest to Peter Parker.
Issue 28 was almost a one-shot story and features a Joe Jusko-like painted look by Clayton Crain. That alone makes the book worth the effort but the story is a particularly good one. The story follows a young aspiring scientist. Not many comics tackled a super-hero's civilian life. If they are a reporter, then they go to work and deal with co-workers or bosses. If they are an artist, then they sit at their desk and start drawing under a deadline. But Peter's student is a fully fleshed out character in the 32 pages it takes to tell this tale.
The rest of the book takes a sudden turn in both art and story. The artists in this collection go totally "Todd McFarlane" on Spidey and reintroduce the frenetic extreme pencil lines so reminiscent of the Image comics of the 90's. The story is all about the women in Peter Parker's life. Interestingly enough, all 3 characters (MJ, Auny May, the Black Cat) already knew Spider-Man's secret identity. MJ undergoes a crisis of faith while Spider-Man is facing a gauntlet of his old villains (and getting attacked by super-villains, of course). We get a look at how Aunt May sees Peter even after all these years. And finally Felicia Hardy, the Black Cat, comes to terms with her own past involvement with Spider-Man (which features a very unusual showdown with Rhino).

Review Bullets:

• MJ looks suspiciously like Kirstin Dunst in this book...
• Speaking of Mary-Jane, she has an interesting conversation with Sue Richards and we see just how out-of-her element she is being married to a super-powered man.
• Seems like only yesterday I read the "Return of Venom" story where Felicia shows up at Peter's apartment not realizing that he's married since the last time they met. This is a weird because it's only now that Black Cat confronts her feelings towards Peter.
• There sure were a LOT of second-stringers in this collection. The story really digs into the Spider-Man mythos and brings out several obscure allies and enemies.
• On the other hand, you don't really need to know who Madame Webb is. Just know that she's the mystic in the "Spider-Man family" because not only does Peter try to get advice from her, but even MJ has a psychic encounter with her. And it's fine!

Overall, both these volumes contribute a very in-depth look at Spider-Man's life as he and his family experience the Civil War event. I would have to consider both books "musts" in the scale of tie-in material to a major event.

werid things to share

Here's a couple of items I stumbled across on-line...

The first is a blog entry who found a video of a bunch of cosplay folks doing an unauthorized public gathering in Akihabara. The blogger conveniently explains the cultural leanings on this sort of thing in Japan. The dance is from the wacky end-credit sequence of a cult-status novel/anime series called "Suzumiya Haruhi's Melancholy." Anyway, it's just really weird.
http://www.tokyomango.com/tokyo_mango/2007/04/video_cosplayer.html

Secondly, the same blog linked to something I thought was really interesting in the sense that I've been previously accused of being a "banana" (that's the Asian version of calling a black man an Oreo)... But apparently there's going to be an anime about the day-to-day life of a half-Japanese man living in Japan. The premise is simple enough and the title is even simpler.
http://www.joeisjapanese.com/joe/

random thoughts

Just 2 things:

Much as I love supporting the local guys, I've realized that Amazon offers collected editions at upwards of 37% off cover price. And if they're in stock, you can get your stuff within 7 days. Fact is both DC and Marvel are guilty of price gouging because their Canadian cover prices are frequently a good 50% mark-up over the American price. That's ridiculous considering how strong the CAD has been in relation to the USD these past few years.



Second, anybody who's into it, grab some dual-layer Memorex DVD+R 25-packs at Futureshop this week. They're on sale for $25 a stack - making a dollar per disc the cheapest I've EVER seen dual-layer media. I'm spreading the word because I was one of the suckers who bought a 50-pack just last week for $60... But going to the trouble of bringing it back for a refund would be an even further waste of gas, time, and energy.

another stupid meme

1. What is your occupation?
IT troublemaker

2. What color are your socks right now?
white ...allegedly.

3. What are you listening to right now?
Evening news on the television.

4. What was the last thing that you ate?
handful of Smarties

5. Can you drive a stick shift?
Yes, but only if the interface is a PS2 controller.

6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be?
green... it's not easy being a crayon.

7. Last person you spoke to on the phone?
I don't know - I picked up, said "hello," but there was no one there.

8. How old are you today?
30

9. Favorite drink:
Virgin rum-and-coke

10. What is your favorite sport to watch?
Hockey, of course!

11. Have you ever dyed your hair?
Nothing permanent.

12. Any piercings?
I have enough holes in me, thank you very much.

13. Pets?
just pet peeves.

14. Favorite food?
Anything involving bacon and eggs.

15. What was the last movie you watched?
Tomb Raider (got it for only $7 in the grocery store bargain bin).

16. Favorite day of the year?
The day just before my birthday because it allows me to reflect on what happened up to then.

17. What do you do to vent anger?
I use foul language (which I rarely use otherwise).

18. What was your favorite toy as a child?
Not sure, but I have fond memories of the Colecovision.

19. What is your favorite fall or spring?
Fall; I get an extra hour of sleep for one weekend.

20. Hugs or kisses?
Hershey's kisses... but I'm always good for a hug.

21. Cherries or Blueberry?
Neither - I like strawberries though.

22. Living arrangements?
alone in my great big house (it seems big to me anyway).

23. When was the last time you cried?
October 31, 2006 ...the morning of the day I closed on my house.

24. What is on the floor of your closet?
probably clothes... :P

25. What did you do last night?
went running, showered, then watched my DVD backlog before going to sleep.

26. Favorite smells?
Anything maple... particularly maple-cured bacon... mmm...

27. Favorite dog breed?
labrador-huskey... Starfish has one and she's great fun to play with.

28. Favorite day of the week?
Mondays - because I'm obviously a sadomasochist.

29. How many states have you lived in?
Just one ...a state of shock!

30. Favorite holiday?
The May Holiday; no reason, I just think it's funny how they keep changing the name for political correctness in Quebec.

watch everything

Furthering my need to enhance my geekness, here's my backlog as of right now:

Heroes episode 23 (actually I just finished watching this so it's not really in the backlog anymore). Very cool season finale! Our main cast is in bad shape when it's all over but I'm quite surprised just how many survived (unless they'll die off-screen before the next season picks up).
Y'all must've heard by now about the proposed spin-off series that will introduce new powered characters over the course of the summer? I heard that fans will get to vote on their favourite new powers and the winners will be fleshed out further to appear as main characters in season 2. That'd be an interesting experiment.

Still watching episodes of Ultraman Tiga - on the final disc as I mentioned earlier. Finally hit the "evil Tiga" two-parter. Further proof that I haven't been spoiled by the serialized nature of shows like Heroes because this was great and I enjoyed it immensely. That would be true of most "mythology episodes" in any given series. We actually got to see Daigo be a real hero in this story.

Picked up volume 3 of Voltron the other day. Best Buy had it for cheap... it was a no brainer to add it to the collection. Mrbabou understands this - the case is a tin box with an embossed robot-lion motif and the inside is sort of "digipak" of the 3 discs. I'm a sucker for that kind of thing.

Finally got my hands on the domestic release of Masked Rider The First. I blogged this before so I want to address the DVD specifically this time. I'm a little disappointed. I went out of my way to find a legit copy to support Media Blasters who were good enough to know there's a niche market for this sort of thing. But I have no choice than to slam them for not giving said niche a full 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack. I know this mix exists because if you browse places like YesAsia, the Region 2 original from Japan has it.
All I can do now is content myself with knowing that I supported the legal licensed property of a movie I've already pirated once before. Oh well. At the very least of it, Media Blasters softens the blow by including a behind-the-scenes look at the filming of Kamen Rider.

Starcraft 2 officially announced!

Okay, seriously now... I don't need to say anything in this post.

Starcraft 2

Dawn of War is going to have company.

Transformers Full Promo

I still have mixed emotions over Hollywood messing with a childhood icon, but this latest promo trailer kicks all kinds of ass...

http://movies.yahoo.com/summer-movies/Transformers/1808716430/trailers/31

...but then, this is Michael Bay we're talking about... all his trailers kick ass. Whether the movie will deliver is another story. Hmm...

2 unrelated things

First, an update: It cost me 10 bucks plus tax to get a replacement banjo fitting at the pro-shop. It was their last one (apparently they go through these like hot-cakes)... They had it down to an art: in the time it took me to run back to my car to pick up my wallet, they installed the replacement and were screwing in a tank to test it. A couple of dry-fire shots later, I was packing up and ready to leave.

Second, a reactionary note: I'm disappointed in the publishing job behind the Ultraman Tiga DVDs as a whole. But I can't complain due to the very fact that they exist at all considering the messed up licensing wars going on between the Taiwanese and Japanese copyright holders. But still, the American release could've used some consistency. Remember when I said the first volume had an authoring bug that crashed my DVD player? (The bonus features playback would not jump back to the menu when it was done leaving it stuck in an endless loop). Well, besides that kind of foolishness, there were the occasional glitches in the video. Finally, for volume 4 (which finally arrived in the mail yesterday) the whole deal stank of "rush job." There is no insert in volume 4 (I thought it might be a mistake so I had to look that up on the web). And there's also the complete mis-print on the episode list on the back cover (somebody cut'n'pasted the titles from volume 3). Actual show review later.

Amazon in the tubes

Now is it just me?

Amazon split my order again (seems a book I ordered is STILL back-ordered)... so they sent out my DVDs anyway. Heck, it's been a month. But the tracking system doesn't seem to work. I had to cut and paste the number from Amazon's page then go to the Canadapost.ca page to see the following:

Besides having to travel out to the paintball pro-shop afterwork, on the bright side of things, my last Ultraman Tiga DVD will be waiting for me when I get home. Hopefully nobody's hogging the super-box. (Also getting the last of the 4 Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers cartoon DVDs; I wish there had been a set of the complete series, but who understands DVD publishers?)

UFS freebies

So there's something to be said about customer loyalty... which is funny in that I don't even play that many hobby type games. But obviously I made an impression on the folks at Fandom II downtown.

I stopped by on Saturday not really expecting to buy anything. I picked up a UFS deck a few weeks back on a whim. My brother had asked me to get the 2-player "battle-pack" a while ago and I did. But since I felt opening it would raise suspicions of pilfering cards out of it, I decided to leave it sealed until I could deliver it. In the meantime I picked a third character deck - Taki, the ninja from Soul Calibur. Which is ironic because the point of the game is that it mixes and matches characters from a multitude of games.

Anyway, so I'm at Fandom and thinking I have some pocket change to spare, so I pick up a pair of booster packs (no, I haven't even played once yet). And the guys at the counter look up and ask me, "so do you have a Mizer character card?" Then they produce a stack of foil cards (rare chase cards) and started dropping them into my shopping bag...

I suppose I should be excited. I mean it was nice of them to just give away these things (I have had several promo cards for different games in the past, but these appear to be actual legal cards). So here are the freebies I got:
The colours are a little weird, but that's because of the foil surface reflecting the scanner's light.

self-destruction of the Ion

Well, that was a lesson learned.

I'm not an idiot because I tend to believe I have some common sense: like not applying too much pressure to a screw or else you may strip the threads. But today, on a whim, because I hadn't test-fired my marker since the last time I cleaned and lubed it, I decided to put the air tank on just to dry-fire it once or twice.

And after I heard the satisfying "hiss" of the tank's pin-valve making contact with the Ion, I started to hear a constant but much quieter "hissing" noise. Uh oh. I listened carefully and determined that the leak was coming from the front of the marker - either the breach or the regulator itself. At first I even thought perhaps the marker was supposed to leak if the barrel was not on right (then I came to my senses and realized, no that can't be right - the barrel has nothing to do with the air system; it's just there to aim your paint when you shoot.

So I took the tank off, made sure the regulator read zero-pressure, and proceeded to strip the marker... all the while I hadn't noticed that the front-grip was a little loose (I'll get back to this later). Anyway, so with the grip off, I started to check the banjo-fitting that connects the regulator to the rest of the marker... I pushed the AllenWrench into the slot and gave it a gentle twist. Nothing too hard. There was a little give but I had intentionally left it like that the last time I closed it up.

But well... if there's a leak...

I gave a bit more pressure. And then... "pop." Well, it didn't actually make any noise because it turns out that the screw is a relatively soft metal. Photos speak louder than words, however.

Here's the broken banjo-fitting... which in itself is not too bad. That's about a $12 mistake I just made.
And below is the "screw-end" that was stuck in the hole after it broke off. This is what really scared me. The following 2 photos show how the piece cannot be pushed up from below so it's a matter of "pulling" it out.


As luck would have it, I happen to have a drill-bit just the right size. Wrapping double-sided tape around the bit, I was able to make a "reverse-clamp" and unscrew the broken piece back out. It could have been a lot worse: maybe it wasn't a hollow screw that might have broken in there. Or I just happened not to have a screw-driver or drill-bit that was small enough...

What REALLY drives me up the wall after the fact (besides the fact that the local pro-shop is not open on Sundays or Mondays) is that I realize after removing the regulator from the grip that it was loose... in fact it was probably loosened the first time I was at the chrono-station. That is, I now believe the "leak" had nothing to do with the banjo fitting at all, and if I had thought to check the fore-grip FIRST and made sure to screw it in all the way, I never would have attempted to open up the marker and adjust the banjo (which was probably already just fine the way it was! ARGH!

replacing the feed neck

Well, if I wasn't committed before, I am now.

Here are the remains of my stock feed neck from the Ion.

I only put on my hopper twice since owning my marker. The first time was very loosely to take a photo when the package arrived for the first night. The second time was shortly before going to field it for the first time... At that point, I had attempted to remove the hopper by giving it twisting motions (which later turned out that I had destroyed the factory-applied locktite substance; guess I don't know my own strength). Since then, I just left the neck attached to the hopper and screwed the whole thing on and off.

Well, this month I'm pooling with some buddies to mail order a bunch of stuff. In this order I'm buying a Smart Parts "Q-Lock," a low-profile neck with a quick-release feature. So I decided to get "cleaned up." Unfortunately, I didn't realize that in twisting the neck off the hopper that I would completely shred the o-ring seals that were built into the neck. So now it's all or nothing because I won't be able to go back to the stock neck.

Civil War: X-Men

On the completely opposite end of the close-knit tie-in spectrum is the 4-part Civil War: X-Men (now available in trade format. If you are a casual reader who only came on-board with the Civil War event, this is probably one of the least important to read. If you were in it for the last few years however, this story follows-up on the events that have been unfolding ever since the aftermath of Avengers: Disassembled.

The last surviving mutants on the planet have gathered at the X-Mansion for protection and have formed a loose fraternity known as "The 198." The X-Men themselves however have reluctantly agreed to allow the government keep watch over them all with a special task force of Sentinels. However, this move has essentially turned the X-Mansion, once a refuge, into a concentration camp. Faced with public outcry over costumed heroes and the resulting Civil War, the X-Men publicly chose to remain neutral.
However, life goes on and Bishop, himself a legal officer of the law, is recruited to help Valerie Cooper and the Office of National Emergency when The 198 stage a riot and escape from the X-Mansion compound. Cyclops, believing nothing good will come of Bishop's mission, leads an X-Men team on their own "rescue" attempt for The 198. The one oddity about the tale is that due to the nature of the plot (the X-Men dealing with a government entity) it has tends to present a biased view in favour of the pro-registration camp despite a cameo with Captain America, the story ends with team of registered heroes led by Iron-Man arriving on the scene to help sort out the mess.

The Marvel Universe is vast and it's impossible to orchestrate a single world-shaking event that will directly affect every single character. The X-Men were addressed in the pages of the main Civil War arc, but once they established this position on the matter, they disappear after only a few panels hinting at the tension between Bishop and Cyclops. This story takes those few panels and explodes them into full form. I have only good things to say about how Marvel has managed to follow-up with the huge events from House of M (and the accompanying Decimation stories) and to tie the aftermath into the backdrop provided by Civil War, which when stripped down to basics, doesn't really involved the X-Men much at all.

Civil War Frontline Book 1

If this book had been but a little shorter I'd have put up a review sooner! As I complained before, Marvel's Civil War event used very-broad strokes of the brush to tell a story that had consequences across the Marvel world's landscape. And that means there will always been new facets to explore (possibly for years to come). One way to tackle this is to simply publish a whole bunch of side-stories together.

Frontline was an anthology title (published in 11 parts and collected in 2 volumes) that serialized several story-lines. The first dealt with reporters Ben Ulrich (of Daredevil fame) and Sally Floyd (of lesser X-Men fame) as they struggle to cover the events for their respective newspapers. While Ulrich must deal with his publisher Jameson who is losing his mind in the wake of Spider-Man revealing his true identity, Floyd finds herself digging deeper into the anti-registration faction but fails rather spectacularly as actually finding Captain America (who had become a fugitive).

The second major story follows Speedball - the last surviving New Warrior who was at the scene when the school was blown away. He is thrown in prison and given a choice: rot, or sign-up and be a poster-boy. Speedball refuses, believing that signing for registration will mean he admits guilt to the incident that left 60 children dead. What he doesn't know until AFTER meeting with Jennifer Walters (She-Hulk) is that while he's been in a coma and in prison, the outside world has vilified him as a scapegoat.

Interspersed with these chapters are bits of sequential art (each one about 3 pages each). They explore the concept of war in historical parallels including Caesar's crossing of the Rubicon, the American Civil War, stories of World War 1, etc.

And finally, we also get a glimpse at what life is like on the inside. In the third serialized story, Wonder Man gladly signed up for Registration in the beginning but slowly starts to notice little hints of fascism creeping up around him as he's ordered to track a suspected terrorist.

On a side note, I'd like to point out the irony that while Civil War is as shallow as the Spider-Man 3 movie I just saw this week, Marvel made a conscious editorial decision to tell a large-scale story using multiple publications. A movie does not have this luxury... put that way, while it doesn't cross-over directly into the events occurring the main arc, I still highly recommend the Frontline series because as far as tie-ins go, this one is probably one of the more important ones.

Reaction: Spider-Man 3

It took me a long while to digest this movie but after a full 24 hours, I've come to a conclusion: the kids will love it. The newest (and possibly last) Spider-Man outing over-extends itself in all ways. The exaggerated behaviours of the characters when they mood swing from one extreme to another isn't new to the franchise. And the highly imaginative fight choreography has been ramped up yet again to breath-taking levels.

But something's amiss this time around. Fans clamoured to see Spidey take on the likes of Sandman. Fans wanted to follow-up with the Osborne legacy. Fans wanted Venom, who is arguably the most popular of the "modern age" Spider-villains. And fans asked what of Gwen Stacy if the movie continuity had adapted MJ into her role as child-hood crush? Well, this movie gave us answers to all of this... careful what you wish for.

Ultimately I found the problem was that this film struggled to introduce so many plot elements from the Spider-Man mythos that each of those plots suffered for it. And the film wound up being a fairly shallow exercise in pleasing the kids. It went in daring new directions (further diverging from the comics continuity than the previous two films) but not really getting anywhere. The plot lept from several parallel paths but never going into any depth with each. Previous movies where only 1 villain appeared at a time proved to be more cohesive and as a result much more satisfying when they were defeated.

If the persistent rumours that director Sam Raimi and stars Maguire and Dunst wanting to bow out of future installments are true, that still doesn't excuse the hollow feeling I get from watching this movie.

Type-Zero comments

Revoltech is slowly building up steam on the local scene. The local specialty shop has always been a few weeks (if not a whole month) late with getting in the latest releases but they're doing better and have even been ordering in multiple boxes of each. Yesterday afternoon I finally got my grubby paws on one of my all-time favourite mecha: the Shinohara Heavy Industries "Type-Zero" from the Patlabor movie.

I have mixed feeling about this toy however. My first 3-dimensional encounter with this mecha was back when the movie first came out (well, not really, but close to anyway): it was a Bandai model kit in the vein of their 1/100 scale Gundam kits, except it was labeled as 1/60 because Patlabor mecha are intended to be much smaller machines. Well, I like to think I did a pretty good job on it. But the limitations of the kit were obvious... for once thing, you couldn't built it in just any action pose a large number of the joints were either impractical or were simply fixed in a straight position.

Anyway, so now I finally have a multi-jointed Type-Zero... but it doesn't quite work the same way as Kaiyodo's "Ingram" pieces. The first obvious tweak is that the sculpt has a "T-crotch" instead of a "V-crotch." That means you can't easily spread-eagle the legs. Maybe it's my imagination, but it seemed the Ingram model could achieve more dynamic poses... And I'm a little disappointed with the head which by nature of its sculpt and the typical Revoltech neck-joint makes for a very awkward look: his head doesn't really turn, but sort of tilts... as if asking me a question. It's hard to explain.

On the plus column, the shield is lovely and is able to handle the "anime-magic" by being somewhat adjustable (it's attached via yet another Revoltech joint). And it does come with brand new hands sculpted just for this piece (including extras for "attack" mode, etc). Very nice.

...just wish that picture turned out a little better: the angle makes him like a bit like a midget! :)

Only 2 bruises this time...

First off there was a reservation screw-up (no finger-point, thanks) and in an incredible stroke of bad luck, this was also the night there was an entire field trip or birthday party (I've never seen so many kids in one place before)... so we go slotted in as "walk-on" players and had to wait for an extra hour before we got to play. We spent our time either browsing the wares in the pro-shop and laughing at the little munchkins through the security webbing.

We weren't mean-spirited or anything, but it was highly entertaining to see six 3'-tall people all crowded behind the SAME bunker. And then obviously 4 of the 6 being eliminated at once. And then there was that other time we cheered them and encouraged them to advance... so 5 of them started rolling the entire bunker forward! To an adult these inflatables provide just enough cover to crouch behind. But to these kids, it was like a giant boulder and it was hilarious to see.

Rules-bending aside, I was a little bit irritated to see some of the kids not really paying attention during the safety orientation... that's an accident waiting to happen. :(

As for ourselves, things worked out for me because playing only 2 hours meant I didn't go through as much paint and I wound up spending less than I normally do. It took me a little while to get used to handling my new Ion. It doesn't balance the way the rental Tippmann 98C does. The electronic marker is a little more responsive but the trigger's shape felt a little odd at first. I was so distracted that I found myself frequently the first player eliminated. As the evening came together however, I started to appreciate the speed and accuracy ...not to mention the sheer volume of paint I was spitting out once I got into "walking" the trigger.

One of my fellow players who recommended the Ion to me asked if I regretted my purchase or not. I'm happy to say "definitely not!" In fact the only thing that annoys me about the activity is having to clean up afterwards. When I got home last night, I had to rinse off my mask and do my anti-fog treatment for it. Then I wiped down the Pulse hopper. I just spent my morning stripping down the Ion to clean and lubricate the bolt. I'll leave the regulator for some other time (I figure since it was relatively clean I suppose I should be able to let it go for another month or so before having to lube the o-rings in there).

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures:

Finally got my mask christened (and what a way to go!).

And I wasn't alone: here are some of my buddies who also were all victims of head-shots all within the same game!

Civil War: Fantastic Four

Once a long while while, an editing team will produce a tie-in product that not only merely references happenings elsewhere, but directly addresses unanswered questions and expands on the history and backstory that fleshes out such an event. I believe Civil War's only serious downfall (beyond the lateness of each issue) was the very nebulous nature of the beast. There were so many players it was difficult to devote much time into exploring each of their internal motivations.

Reed Richards was a major player despite the fact that the war's two icons were Captain America and Iron Man. He figured directly into the Illuminati and in Civil War was revealed to be instrumental in the reappearance of Thor (who up until that point had vanished during the Avengers Disassembled story). Reed also later helped Iron Man design the extra-dimensional prison to hold their POWs during the war.

The F4 collected edition handles issues 538 thru 543 (which also happens to be an extra-long 45-year anniversary issue). It tackles several plot threads that are barely touched upon in the main Civil War arc. Most obviously, the book takes a close look at The Thing, who was relegated to a cameo in the main arc... the book explores the Ben Grimm's crisis of faith in the midst of his family taking sides and he decides to do what other protesting Americans have done in times of war: hang out in France for a while. We get treated to his wacky adventures in a taxi, at the customs counter... and joining a French group of super-heroes who appear to be thinly disguised analogs of DC's Justice League.

Interspersed with the Thing's story, the book also explores Reed's personal motivations for supporting the Super-Humans Registration Act. He is at first depicted as a heartless and severely clinical mind. Then progressively, shown to keep secrets from friends and family (on the subject of Thor, for example) and even making up a story to tell Peter Parker explaining why he supports the SHRA. And finally revealling that he's been working on solving a doomsday scenario and he believes it could be the end of the world (so much for rational thought!).

What I found particularly interesting is that this collection of issue behaves more like a cross-over than a tie-in. The plot runs concurrently with the main Civil War arc. The family are still together at the start of the book but Johnny Storm has already been hospitalized. There are references to the Thor reappearance later on. And still later, whereas the main arc depicted Sue and Richards in a "Dear John" situation, this book's interpretation is much more dramatic, demonstrating that Invisible Woman just might be the F4's most powerful member.

While things don't exactly go back to status quo by the end, the book does wrap beautifully with the anniversary issue of F4. One could argue that this indicident was one of their most trying times (especially on a character development level). Johnny and Ben sit at home with the kids watching a documentary called "The Fantastic Four: A Look Back" while Reed and Sue try to patch things up on their own. It's hopeful and bittersweet. And was also just the right place to pack in a couple of goofy 1960's styled back-up stories paying homage to 45 years of fun adventures.

I haven't had this much fun with a collected edition in a long time.

cheap anti-fog

Besides the regulars, I doubt any paintball players read this blog. However I've come to know that Google turns up all sorts of weird hits so maybe someone looking for anti-fog info will find this.

Well, I'm down to less than 24 hours before fielding my paintball mask (a V-Force Profiler) for the second time and to be honest, there was some fogging going on even tho I didn't complain about it as much as my friends did. In a pinch, I've learned that you can just breath only by the mouth and blown down away from the lens.

One of my fellow players is trying a RainX product... I went for a simpler trick: Johnson & Johnson's "no more tears" baby shampoo. A large bottle almost 600ml costs less than $5. And I figure, if it doesn't work out, at least I'll have clean hair. Anyway, all you need is a single drop for this exercise.

Remove the lens from the mask and rinse it in your sink. Carefully hold it by the edges and have a clean fluffy towel handy. drop some of the baby shampoo on your fingers and let the running water dilute it before allowing it all to drip onto the lens, swirl it around a bit with your fingers and allow the water to rinse it clean. Dab dry with the fluffy towel - no need to rub, the lens will be a little squeaky because it's so clean.

The theory I've read is that by having the lens so clean (using a gentle detergent like baby shampoo to avoid any chemical reaction that might weaken the plastic) that water particles won't stick to the surface. I don't know how much I believe that sort of explanation, but I do know that it seems to work fairly well. I wore the mask for a while and breathed hard in it and there wasn't any fog at all. Sweetness - I'm ready.