Disney Trip 2016 - Day 10 - Polynesian/Travel

On Tuesday, August 30, we got up, showered, and packed the last of our items away. We had accumulated a lot of snacks that would not make the trip back.

We stored our bags at the front desk and took the bus to the Magic Kingdom. We were early, so we took the train around the park and checked that off our list. Knowing that Stitch made an appearance at the front, we saw him as we were starting our train ride and he was still there when we got off - but the line was too long.

We took the monorail to the Polynesian Resort and had our Aloha Character Breakfast. It was a beautiful breakfast - we started with fresh fruit and pastries, then had an all-you-can-eat, family-style breakfast - scrambled eggs, biscuits, waffles, hash browns, sausage, and bacon. There was also this mango/guava/orange juice that was wonderful.
They had the following characters there - Pluto, holiday Mickey, Lilo, and of course Stitch. It cost about $35 a person - which I consider a bargain for what you received. We were there early but they sat us early. We did have a long wait for Stitch but, when he finally came around, my daughter had tears again.


We took a cab back to our resort. Gaby when to the arcade again. We got our bags from holding, and waited for the bus back to the airport.
As we got to the airport it rained very heavily. We unloaded under the canopy and made our way over to our terminal for our flights back. We waited. The desk did not open until 3:45.
We were in the front third of the line but we got held up. Our tickets back for David3 and I did not have our middle names and the computer did not want to board two people with the same name. So we had to wait while the agent was on hold and could fix it for us.
Our bags were a bit over - 54, 51, and 53 pounds but he let them go through without overcharges. My bag, even with all the heavy liquids and extra stuff, was still only 47 pounds.

We got split up at customs by an agent that looked like an older Daniel Cook. Gaby and Shan went though as pre-checked, and David3 and I had to go through the regular line. They brought the dog out to run up an down the line but no incidence.

We picked up some burgers from Burger King and waited for our flight.


We got to Toronto with no problems. We didn't have to transfer our bags, which was a big help as our connection was tight.
Or it would have been if the connecting plane was on time. There was an issue with the plane so they had to bring a replacement in from New York.

We did a lot of walking through the Toronto terminal, and Shan and Gaby had picked up some Timbits for the wait. The kids were happy to be back in Canada and were looking forward to getting home.

My folks picked us up in Winnipeg. We were supposed to be in at 12:30 am but with the delay we were a bit late.

Why do Cosplayers wait until the last moment?

Because there is always more that can be done to the costume if there is more time.

Because I’ve been able to finish costumes for my daughter with little notice, she feels that I always can. Lucky for her, I’ve mostly had the week off during costume crunch time and can working into the night by stealing sleep during the day.

This didn’t work out for her last time when she wanted to do Princess Mononoke. We got a good start, and still pulled off enough for a costume but, because she was too busy to put effort in to it, did not finish the mask.

This time she came back from Thunder Bay wanting to do three costumes for Aikon, a local anime convention. But she didn’t work on them over the weekend, Monday we went shopping at Michaels for supplies but did no work, and she was away camping with a friend Tuesday to Wednesday. That left yesterday night to work on them.

She wanted a Sudoh-Bucks apron, a Wolf Children dress, and Rin Okumora from Blue Exorcist. She traced an apron on her fabric and we used hem tape to seal the edges. She used ribbon for the straps and glued it on. If we would have had more time, or were making more, I would have done the design with fabric paint but instead we did it out of felt. I was making one with glued felt and one with adhesive-backed felt but only completed the adhesive-backed one due to time. She also printed off the logo and glued it to a coffee cup that she had painted white.

While we were working on that, Shan was cutting out appliques from felt that Gee glued down on a blue dress for Wolf Children. She would also have to tack the sleeves in as it doesn't have doesn’t have sleeves. We didn’t have time for Rin Okumora so she didn’t get to do that one. We worked late into the night. I was the last one up working away on the logo, finishing at 2 am. It still needed to have the backing peeled off and then stuck to the apron but was basically finished.

BMG - more figures.

I was going to stop buying miniatures for the Batman Miniature Game and save up for some of the Games Workshop boxed sets. But then Fun Again Games had a summer sale so I ordered a few more.

I ordered the Modern Batman as it comes with a Robin. I already have the Ben Affleck Batman, and now the Armored Batman from the DC Universe Trinity set. This one goes with the World’s Finest card in the DC Universe and is supposed to be the best Batman for the points in the Batman Miniature game.

I also got a Ravager, who is a Free Agent, so she can work with any team. She also used to be one of the best figures in the DC Universe game. In addition, as a Justice League Grey, she will work with either team.

I also picked up a Lobo, another Free Agent who can also be used in DC Universe. I don’t know if he is good, and I wasn’t a huge fan of him in the day, but I’m looking forward to painting him.


I am pretty sure this will be the game that gets me to start painting again.

Marvel Universe status update.

With a bit more searching, I was able to get more figures for the Marvel Universe Miniature game. I think I’m good now. I have all 5 starters, 13 of the 20 single figures, the 3 sets of markers, and the spray template. Of the Spider-Man game figures, that work with the Batman Miniature game but also have cards to use with the Marvel Universe game, I don’t have any of the 3 starters, but do have 4 of the 5 individual figures.

I was even able to pick up a figure that I can use for the Incredible Hulk. It seems a bit big to me – closer to 1/32 scale, but that matches pretty close to how big the Knight Models figure is. I had been looking for one from the Dollar Store or Dollar Tree but hadn’t been able to find one. This one was about $10- more than I had wanted to spend, but still much less than the actual figure. At that price I have to think about if I really want to rebase or repaint him.

I have all the key figures I had wanted except Jean Grey. There are still two other figures that I am interested in, Loki and Elektra, but those both seem to be rare and expensive, so I will substitute Heroclix figures. I would also substitute for the rest of the figures I need unless the price drops on them significantly. These are Thanos, Doctor Octopus, Incredible Hulk, Venom, Hulkbuster MK44, and the other sculpt of Black Widow. If I run across the Spider-Man starters at a good price, I would get them as well – Superior Spider-Man, Spider Robots, and Goblin Cult.


Now I just have to paint them.

Shopping in Thunder Bay - or not-so-local FGS

We did a trip to Thunder Bay to visit relatives for the Canada Day long weekend. It’s a bit of a drive – with the Ontario part being mostly one lane each way and only 90 km/h. I’ve done it once in the early spring and it was harrowing.
As the semis would pass, they would splash slush on your windshield and you could not see for 3 – 4 seconds. You had to hope there wasn’t a turn or a drifting cars until you could see again.

Thunder Bay has two great gaming stores. Thunder Games is located underneath a strip mall. It mainly focuses on miniature games, and has a large Games Workshop section, including many older books and games. This time I was able to get a copy of Kill Team, and the hardcover Imperial Agents codex. They also had the revised Dark Angels and Tau but I passed on them for now.
I did pick up a Season One for Blood Bowl. I don’t have the newest version of Blood Bowl yet, but I know that I’ll end up getting it eventually.

The other good store is The Game Shelf – which is attached to a used book store called The Book Shelf. It reminds me of a Sentry Box-lite. They had a bunch of Warhammer books that I could have picked up at the Book Shelf but I left them this time. I did find a hardcover Farsight Enclaves for $6.95 so I grabbed it.
Going through to the Game Shelf part I picked up some Heroclix starters. I also got another Dust building, and I picked up the Trinity set for DC Universe Miniature game.

I’ll probably have to pop back to Thunder Bay next year for a wedding, so I’m already looking forward to going back to these two stores to fill in more gaps from my lists.

Figure Painting Total - June 2017

I was able to pick up the remainders of the Knight Models Watchmen as well as a Rick Flag to complete my Suicide Squad team.

BM – Watchmen – Nite Owl – 1
BM – Watchmen – Ozymandius – 1
BM – Rick Flag - 1

June figures bought - 3, figures painted – 0
Running total 2017 – figures bought 78, figures painted 0