Big box of Horrorclix Love

I had bought a case of Horrorclix Freakshow and it came this week. I was very happy with the mix – I managed to get an entire set from the 4 bricks contained within the case. This also included two of the pricy Templars as well as two of the Wacko Jackos. I got a full set of the Plot Twists and am only two cards from a second complete set. The only downside is that the three experienced Killer Clowns I got all came with rookie cards instead. This brings my Horrorclix total down to 4 figures and only 2 LEs needed to finish the entire set. I am quite pleased.

GCMinis - Zaboo’d

With the word of a new Warhammer edition coming out next year, I wanted to make sure I got the 7th edition boxed set – Battle for Skull Pass. I also thought it was time to get the 5th edition 40K boxed set as well – Assault on Black Reach. Our good friends at Great Canadian Miniatures were so quick with the Space Hulk order (plus the 30% off) that I ordered from them again. I placed the order on Nov 12 but I didn’t get a payment request like I did the last time so I sent them an email on Nov 13. With still no response, I sent them another email on Nov 16 to their contact email. I even tried their contact number from the web but kept getting the message that their mailbox was full.

After more waiting, I sent another email on November 24 – to no response. Finally, on Nov 30, with help from the web, I tried to track them down. Their site mentions that they have a retail location – in the back of a bookstore. I was going to call them there to see if they had a different contact number when I noticed their mailing address for payments. A quick google search later, followed by a check of Canada411 and I gave them a call. Needless to say, the owner was surprised at my call and said that he would get the manager Kevin to give me a call back within the next 24 hours.

Within 2 hours, I got a call from Kevin who apologized saying that this was their busy time of year. He said he would send the payment request right away. I was glad to hear that they were still in business. I am looking forward to getting some more from them in the new year – notably some Blood Bowl teams and the Battle of Five Armies.


I understand that one can get behind, but it shouldn’t take almost 3 weeks from the time an order is placed to pay for it – it certainly didn’t the last time. Plus having a voicemail box that doesn’t seem to be emptied makes us shoppers a bit concerned. I’m glad to hear everything is still fine.

(If you don’t understand the Zaboo’d referece – watch The Guild.)

Naughty or Nice?

Last year, Santa was having trouble finding coal for the kids stockings. We came across a place this weekend that has coal for sale pretty cheap that we didn't even think of - the Prairie Dog Central. They have souvenir bags of coal in their gift shop.

We had taken the kids on a train ride last night. It was pretty cool. They thought it was going to go much faster. They had put plastic over the train windows to keep in the heat but it obscured the view a bit. There was a Christmas party out in Grosse Isle. We even sang carols on the way back.

All-in-all, it was a fun time on the train.

Hammer of Thor - thoughts

I got my brick of the new Neca/Wizkids Hammer of Thor on Friday. It was nice in that the buy-the-brick figure, Surtur, was given to me right at that point and I didn’t have to mail away for it. We opened the lot on Saturday. The set looks nice – the figures are nicely sculpted. I do have a bit of an issue with the new click base – there’s not much to turn the base with without stressing on the figures legs. I found a lot of the stickers weren’t nicely lined up with the base window – but as the adhesive is still fresh, it’s a simple matter of opening up the base and repositioning it.

There were none of the Battlefield Conditions, Bystanders, Objects, or Feat cards in my set. Personally, I was never a big fan of the feats – I didn’t mind the Bystanders or Objects. The distribution seems fine – I got a brick of 10 boosters, each with 5 figures. Out of a 60 figure set I ended up with 41 figures and 8 duplicates. I also got one of the chase figures – in a booster with the 4 super-rares from the brick. I don’t know if this is how they are normally distributed or if they are normally apportioned through the boosters instead.

Overall, I’m quite pleased with this set. The Thorbuster Iron Man chase figure is certainly a pleasant surprise. The figures are nice and the mix of figures in the set seems to cover a bunch of new faces – the Runaways, the Warriors Three, Starlord, and even Bug (from the Micronauts). I’m not impressed with the new bases but I can work with that. Since this one was already in the planning from last year, before Wizkids being sold, Neca probably didn't have too much influence on it's design. We’ll have to see how the next two sets pan out.

Also – they’ve finally got around to updating the WizKids site with the new gallery from the new set.

It's Hammer Time!

The new Heroclix set is finally being released - after about a year. Check out the flyer. It's called Hammer of Thor so it's mostly Thor and Runaways. The Surtur Brick figure is supposed to be at the stores instead of being a mail-away. I'm hoping to get a brick this weekend so I'll let you know my thoughts.

Chores done

We had nice enough weather for this time of the year so we finally got some yard work done. The pool has been folded up - not nicely but enough for this winter.

We also managed to rake the leaves from the front yard - 22 bags full. I can only use so many in my compost piles. I even have a leaf compost going from last year.

Yesterday Shan started the Christmas baking. She got a good bunch done and we helped with icing until late in the night. Tomorrow we put up the tree.

Halloween wrapup

We did manage to get the skeletons in the tree after all. Even with our lack of extra cool decorations, we still managed to lure in 37 trick-or-treaters. I was impressed that we were able to achieve even this as while taking D3 on his meager rounds we were quite often the only people on the street.

The pumpkins have now been hacked up and added to the compost for the winter. Hopefully we'll rake up the leaves and finally fold up the pool this weekend.