Sunday, May 24, 2009

A look at the Storm Arachns

I have no idea what these are, but they look suitably nasty. I'm guessing that much like the time I picked up a Nina Zero/Babylon Zero, the rules governing these playing pieces will be in the Operation: Frostbite expansion that's currently in the mail (at least, yes, it has the O:F logo on the back this box).
All I've gathered is that this from the latest product "wave" in the line. One thing I like (and don't like) is the individual twist ties securing each figure to the tray. Hopefully this is a new trend that will prevent something like my shattered Baal Golgoth incident from happening again. The try is still a "snap-in" so you can get the figures back in for storage without the twist ties. Something typical of the later releases that I'm glad to see back is the slot in the tray to hold the unit cards.But enough about the packaging. I want to rave about something that's been a very long time coming: a real mounting point. In past Therian figures suffered from irreparable (or repeated) damage if their feet ever disconnected from their base - their claw-feet simply don't have enough surface area to glue properly.

The set comes with 2 variations of the same card (one with artwork depicting the Relay option, the other without). At a glance I don't know why I would ever field these over, say Grim Golems. I guess it's one of those cost things when you're trying to fill a 1-star rank slot in your platoon pattern. Hopefully they're cheap.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Stormlord 4

Here's a follow-up to the drilling work I mentioned... Thankfully, I've learned that less glue is better for 2 reasons: First it'll dry faster and cleaner, second it's easier to snap off mistakes. Here's the post-operation heavy bolter before I glued it back on.And to be honest, there's nothing else particularly interesting about this build because the rest is the final "turret" assembly. And as I previously said, it barely counts as a turret since it's actually so big is just sits in place and doesn't turn (it makes Baneblade's Vanquisher cannon turret look puny by comparison).
However, I will stop for a moment to show the heavy stubber guns mounted at the back. The instructions rather gloss over their assembly. In fact, the CAD drawing is actually wrong in one part. Firstly, you MUST pay attention to which pieces go on the left or right. The photo below shows the port-side gun (the "bolts" on the panel are at the rear of the vehicle). Also to note, the chain of bullets are on the sprue next to the wrong gun! You'll see when you start test-fitting: the bullets will point backwards if you have the incorrect bit. Lastly, it's not obvious, but the handles are also direction-specific - the handles are longer on the bottom than the top.And here's what they look like mounted. I took these photos specifically because the literature never shows how the final panels are supposed to go onto the tank - the front part goes under the hull ledge while the back part (with the bolts) goes over the hull ledge.
Finally, here are some random pics of the final build before paint. All I can say is I love how much surface detail is on the new pieces. I have a whole new appreciation for the original Baneblade parts too.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Stormlord 3

Something I forgot to mention in my last post...

Here my super-heavy tank is coming together. But when you reach this point, you have emptied at least a couple of Baneblade sprues already. Except for one piece.

On the port side rear panel, there is a tiny little exhaust bit that is a separate piece! See the two towing hooks? The one on the left - take a close look right to the left of that. That little pipe is a tiny little bit about half an inch long. Don't forget that!

On a side note, I think I will snap that front Heavy Bolter off and re-glue it. Now that the two halves of the chassis are together, I don't see how I will ever reach the sides using something as big as my handheld drill. I'll snap it off, do my drilling, and then glue it back on. No worries, after base coating with matt black, you'd never be able to tell if I cause any stress-marks in the plastic.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Stormlord 2

I haven't blogged most of the chassis assembly because it's essentially a Baneblade body. But now I'm starting to encounter the new stuff in this edition of the Imperial Guard super-heavy tank.

In this photo, I want to introduce the heavy flamer sponson. I can't recall if the Baneblade kit had this option (it probably did). It's a tighter fit than the heavy bolter because there are more bitz sticking out the sides this time. But if you squeeze the two barrels in towards each other, then they will poke through the holes. The plastic is indeed soft enough to allow a bit give without damage. Be gentle.Here is some of the all new stuff in the Shadowsword/Stormlord kit. It's subtle. But the Baneblade part had nothing up front. You had to go a little higher before there was the assembly for the rotating heavy bolter turret and the Demolisher Cannon. Instead, since there simply isn't room on the this variant (it's main turret barely qualifies as a "turret" since it won't even turn), then there is a fixed heavy bolter instead.An observation: I'm a bit disappointed that despite being so big, there is no muzzle-hole sculpted into the barrels. I think I will need to do a little custome Dremel work.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Incomplete Support Sites

You wanna know what grinds my gears? An incomplete web-site that covers "most" situations but won't necessarily cover YOUR situation.
 
When I got back from Montreal last weekend I was both pleased and disappointed with my latest Monster booster box for Monsterpocalypse. I was happy to find the Terra Khan figures. Not that they're hard to find, but it would end up being a good gift for my brother who wants to collect and play as the Terrasaurs faction. I was disappointed to find I had a pretty serious defect: one of the figures had the wrong base on it.
 
If I haven't explained previously, let me do a quick rundown: Monsters come in sets. You get a blind-boxed set including the basic form and the powered-up form. Throughout the game you play until both forms have been reduced to zero life. So if the stats are wrong, or the figures in the set are mismatched, then that pretty much renders the set unplayable and useless (other than having a colourful miniature to look at).
 
So of course, since can't do the obvious thing: drive all the way back to Montreal to ask for help at the store where I bought it, I did the next most logical thing: I went to the official Monsterpocalypse site. The Support page is fairly helpful if only just a little ambiguous. There are steps to follow depending on what's wrong. They covered damaged figures, missing figures, mismatched figures... but not really "broken in the sense it hasn't been assembled with the right parts." There is however, a helpfully listed email address...
 
...which doesn't seem to be active.
 
You see, of this whole situation worked out quite well in the end... only it took almost 3 days to get some action. After waiting for 2 days, I browsed the players' forum at the site until I found other users who had questions about getting help for defective figures. Someone posted an email address known as "frontdesk." Thankfully, this address proved much more useful than the one on the support page. The response seemed to indicate I should do exactly as it says for "misprinted" figures (a section that doesn't exist on the support page but I rememeber reading on the forum that a misprint was considered "broken.")
 
I contacted my brother one last time to confirm if it was worth my effort to mail in the defect (he said yes). Today I printed out the email and the report form to fill out. Unfortunately I'm in the office all day so it won't be until after business hours before I can stop at the post office to send it out.
 
I'll keep you posted on how this turns out. Will they get back to me or will my report go into the aether? Will it be a whole new replacement (body and base) sent to me or just a correct replacement base for me to glue my figure onto? Or will they accidentally send me the wrong replacement figure and send the figure corresponding to the WRONG base I returned? So many possibilities. And so few correct ones... Hmm...

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

photo dump

Here are some goodies that arrived straight from Japan in the mail today.

This FREEing 1/4 scale figure is new old stock. Emiri Kimidori was a little known supporting character who showed up briefly in an episode of The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi. Not much to say other than, I'm glad to finally own one of these after waiting for (and giving up on) my local store to get it in stock for 6 months. It took me about 2 weeks from that day to have this in my hands.

Second, I just wanted to quickly point out to anybody still confused: yes the "Music Label Soundwave" is indeed an mp3 player that takes the oddball "Mini-SD" format. This is not be mistaken with "Micro-SD." Mini-SD was a short-lived format that's slightly smaller than a normal SD card but is way bigger than a Micro-SD card. Anybody know where I can find these for cheap?

Lastly is a photo Weirdguy shared with me. In my life time, this is possibly the largest amount of sealed M:TG product I have ever seen in a non-retail environment. This photo was taken as I arrived for the party a couple of weeks ago when our friends pooled a bunch of money to stock up on the latest set at a fantastic discount from the SRP.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Stormlord 1

Here comes another build series. This time I'm tackling the recent Stormlord kit. Here is what it looks like "out of the box."
Take a good look with me because this is the last time we'll see all those sprues fitting so neatly in there. (How do they get them arranged like that?).

But let me jump to something that's been bugging me ever since I attempted to build the Baneblade kit (it's the same chassis so the lesson applies here too). It's a global rule when you build kits: test-fit everything. But most importantly, test-fit a few steps ahead.

The Baneblade instructions were a little lacking in this department and the situation hasn't improved for this iteration. Although they are kind enough to note what parts to assemble in which order and they've molded handy L or R markers on most pieces. The fact is, there remain some bits that are NOT interchangeable from side to side. And you might not notice until it's too late.

Check out the following photos. Step 4 seems to indicate that the spare fuel tanks are generic for the left and right. This assumption would be wrong. Look carefully at the pieces and you'll see a slot on one side of one, and the slot is on the opposite side of the other. The slot is where another side-specific piece will go: a bit of duct that leads from the tanks to the inner tread assembly.The slot is where another side-specific piece will go: a bit of duct that leads from the tanks to the inner tread assembly. The duct's edge that slips into the fuel tank assembly is cut with a slant in one direction for one side, and slanted in the opposite direction for the other. BEWARE! There is absolutely no indication of this from the CG rendered illustration in the booklet.

Thursday, May 07, 2009

Big towel

At first I just thought, well, if I was going to dry myself, I may as well do it in style and as a member of Team Gurren Lagann... and $25 was a pittance for the honour (or the goofiness of having yet another ridiculous piece of merchandising in my house... did I ever blog about my dakimakura?

Anyway, nothing prepared me for when I finally pulled this towel out of its sleeve and unfolded it. It's insanely huge! Yes, that is a full size 3-seater sofa in my living room. That's how big this towel turned out to be. Awesome.

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

How not to foster foreign relations

Does anybody remember that scene in Top Gun when Tom Cruise gives the Russian pilot the middle finger but later refers to the action as "keeping up foreign relations?"

I got served a cease-and-desist in my inbox today for a property that hasn't been licensed in my country (or anywhere outside Japan as far as I can tell). My ISP received a C&D through BayTSP - a copyright enforcement agency working for MediaFactoryINC. The file in question? A fan-subtitled video of Queen's Blade (not that it's an anime really worth writing home about). It was in my torrent over the weekend.

Everyone knows it but nobody does anything about it. Fansubs fall into that legal gray-area. If region locking is meant to control distribution, then obviously Media Factory does not want me to buy their Japanese DVDs. Fansubs as a rule are illegal, but they are also the easiest ways for fans to share properties that aren't immediately available. Now, if Media Factory were to sell the rights for overseas, distribution, then the best way to maintain foreign relations would simply be to sell the rights for an acceptable cost. Then the foreign distributor would deal with the fansubs. Most often, that is to turn around and ask the domestic fansub community to quit throwing away their property to free...

And you know what's really great about that arrangement? Often times, it works. Reputable fansub groups will stop subbing licensed properties. And trackers like Animesuki will unlist known licensed titles.

Unfortunately this isn't a perfect world we live in. Look hard enough and you will still find licensed titles floating around illegally. But that can be said of pretty much anything on the 'net. What is most unfortunate however, is the fact that MediaFactory has seen fit to enforce their international rights through a rather heavy-handed tactic... which, sadly, kind of turns me off on their stuff from now on.

Monday, May 04, 2009

New minis in the mail

As is typical of the USPS, here is the tracking screen for the eBay auction I mentioned earlier today:
And here is the eBay auction on my dining room table:

The S-type Shinobi (the guy in a jumping pose) on the back right and the Shadow Gate on the front right are not part of the auction, I just put them there because I happen to have them in my collection. I can't wait to try playing with some matched pieces on the board for a change. Hey Weirdguy, when will you have time to play with me again!? :)

Things in the mail

If a penny saved is a penny lost… here is an updated list of pending items.

1) After filing my taxes, I happened on an old link to HLJ where a Transformers sale is still on. I ordered the Music Label Soundwave. Sure, it's a crappy MP3 player, but… it's Soundwave - one of the select few Decepticons to appear in both Family Guy and Robot Chicken! He is currently sitting in a warehouse at HLJ awaiting shipping thanks to "Golden Week" (Japan's version of spring break).

2) A second item held up by Golden Week is an eBay win for a 1/4 scale Emiri Kimidori by FREEing. The reason I waited this long to eBay her is simple: I gave the local shop 6 months to find stock (and if you ask me, that was about 4 months too much). After I got them to admit they were unlikely to get any, I didn't waste any more time to look up one of my favourite sellers.

4) Given that I won that Monsterpocalypse lot 2 weeks ago and that the USPS tracking site still claims the item has not been received from the shipper, you would think Golden Week applied to the United States as well. What bothers me is that not only has the tracking system not updated in over a week, but that the Canada Post system has not picked it up yet (usually, the moment it crosses the border, our system starts tracking right away). Since neither system is tracking it, I'm starting to question just what is going on.

Sunday, May 03, 2009

How Bant Broke Magic

I didn't want to write and post this opinion earlier because I thought it would sound a little too whiny. But after last night's experience, I have had second thoughts.

When Weirdguy came into my office a mere 4 months ago to show off a stack of used Magic: The Gathering he scored for a few dollars, I had no idea that my suggestion to play together would culminate in a tounament of almost 10 players vying for a Fat Pack prize and bulk discounts at a local game store. The variety of players is nothing to snear at. We had participants from complete newbies (like myself) to regulars (like The Dark Horse) and everything in between (players who had previous experience years ago like Weirdguy). Decks spanned collections dating across nearly the entire history of M:TG – some players with 4th edition cards and others with the newest Conflux decks. Given the spread, one could only believe that the dispersal of wins throughout the tournament should come down to a lot of luck.

But something occurred to me during the tournament that I kept to myself. I did not complain because the tournament was all about having a good time with friends. I had recently acquired several interesting Conflux cards and tried turning my Shards of Alara deck into a 5-colour deck. Many players looked at me with shock when they realized I had only about 8 weeks of Magic experience under my belt when the tournament began... and that I was attempting to play 5 colours. In hindsight, I realize that was overly ambitious of me.

However, I did notice something else: even as a relative newbie, I know that each colour traditionally lent itself to a particular play strategy. And that had not changed for the current block. However, lately it seemed like the Bant decks were doing unusually well during the tournament. Even neglecting the relative luck involved (whether it was opponents not drawing well, or the white player drawing unusually well), there is no denying the facts of how the tournament eventually played out. Three of four semi-finalists played white decks. Two were Bant (a fellow newbie, and an average experienced player with a history of gaming). The other was the tournament Dark Horse who revealed a history of playing as recent as only a few months ago. The final qualifier, I will concede, was simply mostly skilled (I bow to his deck-building and play-time savvy).

Cold hard fact is, when we finally got to the final best of 3 match-up, both players played with white Life-restoring decks. Weirdguy played a Shards of Alara white-blue-green deck while the Dark Horse played black-white deck dating back to Time-Spirals. And while I respect Dark Horse eventually winning, it was almost painful to watch how close it came. The fact is, the current incarnation of the white deck is insanely powerful with what appears to be very few options to counter it. In Bant, especially, the danger lies in the combination of Lifelink and Exalted.

Give one creature Lifelink large enough to attack alone and field several Exalted creatures, it's very easy to create something that's practically unstoppable. And it gets worse with the old standard “Magic creatures don't pull punches.” That means a chump block doesn't prevent a Bant players from accumulating a bunch of Life. In fact, I've watched Bant players duke it out to the point I got bored watching.

And if you don't believe me... just ask Weirdguy, who 2 nights ago tried playing a non-white deck for a change and easily got trounced by the same newbie-constructed Bant deck (with minor modifications from Alara Reborn). Something fishy is going on in the Magic game, and I'm not sure I trust it. One thing's for sure, I predict a whole lot more white decks in our next tournament. :p

On a related note, here's part of my collection. This rant came about following Friday night's Alara Reborn party. We capped off the night with a multi-player game where, exactly as you would guess from my rant, 2 players in the end stretched it to 2:30am ...both with white cards. I mean, do I need any further proof that something is wrong here?