Figure Paining Total - Oct

In October I picked up a bunch of figures on sale during holidays – some 40K figures - Necrons, plus the ones in the the Assassinorum: Execution Force board game (which has the same Chaos Cultists as in the 40K boxed set), and another Egyptian Cavalry box for Arcane Legions – which mostly contains the Nuetral Mongol riders.
Back in June I had also picked up the PVP edition of figures for the Frag game. I didn’t have it at the time, but since they were on 40% off I snapped them up. This helped to decide to pick up Frag in September.

To no surprise, painting still has not happened. But, since the wife is pushing to have that room cleaned, priority on that has moved up the list and may actually happen sooner. Once the desk is cleaned down, project work can happen again, including painting. Once that starts, I’ll probably start getting the Batman Miniatures figures.

Frag PVP figures – 5
Arcane Legions – Egyptian Cavalry – 15
Assassinorum: Execution Force - 23
40K Necron Command Barge/Annihilation Barge – 2
40K Necron Battleforce – 31

October figures bought – 76
October figures painted – 0

HC buying - finally back to working away at it.

Now that I am pretty caught up on 40K codices, I looked at picking up some Heroclix to complete some of the older sets. I usually keep an eye on Strikezone – as they have HC figures. I use them as a base price when I find figures on ebay or in person - if they are too much out of line, then I don't bother.

I was looking to fill in some of older sets and so I popped over to Strikezone. They were having a big sale on some of the older sets. This was great but it seemed that they were finally blowing out their stock of these older, pre-card sets. So I missed a good chance to get some of the ones I needed.

I was able to finish the KA2 set (except the chase figure), as well as Collateral Damage. I also picked up some more figures from a few of the other sets, bringing me even closer than I was.

I missed it from Strikezone but was able to get the remaining figures I needed to also complete the Pacific Rim set from an dealer on ebay from which I used to buy. This and the KA2 figures were the key ones that I wanted to complete right now. I'll have to start looking on ebay to work away at some of the other older sets.

Buying 40K for 40% off in Fargo

While in Fargo, we popped in to Paradox Comics. There wasn’t any new games that caught my eye but they did have some in their 40% off rack that did. I was able to pick up Bring Out Yer Dead, Assassinorum: Execution Force, and a Firefly RPG module. I also got a Necron Battleforce, and Imperial Knights datacards for the same 40% off. I was able to get into the back room again and get some more 40K books for 20% off. I picked up Cities of Death, Planetstrike, and Battle Missions, and a Necron Catacomb Command Barge. It seems like they are thinking about stop carrying Games Workshop so were willing to discount them. I could have picked up some more armies and codices but it the dollar being what it was, I could only bring back so much.

Game shopping on holidays

For the September long weekend, we were in Thunder Bay. In addition to everything else, we managed to pick up some games as well.

Thunder Games is a deceptive store. It looks tiny from the outside but the door leads to a staircase - with the store downstairs. I picked up some 40K books on sale as well as the two White Dwarf copies I had so much trouble finding (issue 47 + 48) for $5 each. Now I can pull the cards out and still have a nice copy. I also picked up the Haemonculus Covens codex at regular price as well as a few used 40K books that ended up being on sale - Escalation for $36, Stronghold Assault for $25, as well as the new Apocalypse for $44.
I also picked up the rulebook for the Batman Miniature Game. I figured I'd give it a try before I bought the miniatures for it. I can always try it with Heroclix figures before getting the real Knight Model ones.

The other game store was the Gameshelf - attached to a used book store - the Bookshelf. In the Bookshelf I picked up the Iyaden Codex for only $9 as well as some hard to find Serenity RPG books.
At the Gameshelf I was able to get Colt Express, Monsterpocalypse Volton, and even White Dwarf 66 to fill in the last gap. I even picked up the revised Dust Tactics rulebook to see if it's worth picking up the figures.

We even popped in to the Value Village to check it out. Much to my chagrin they had what seems to be the entire set of Time Life: The Old West books. So I picked up nicer copies of 3 books to replace the placeholder versions I have. I now only need the index to complete the collection.

Books read - May to August 2015

May
Don’t Eat This Book - Fast Food and the Supersizing of America by Morgan Spurlock
Craft Fail by Heather Mann
The Hunger Games: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion by Kate Egan
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire – The Official Illustrated Movie Companion by Kate Egan
The Lord of the Rings Weapons and Warfare by Chris Smith
The Practical Guide to Decorative Antique Effects by Annie Sloan
Television Shows That Changed our Lives by People Books

June
Time Life Books: The Old West – The Ranchers by Ogden Tanner
Child Stars – Then and Now by People Books
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Tannhauser: Rising Sun, Falling Shadows by Robert T. Jeshonek
Warhammer 40,000 (6th Edition) by Adam Troke, Jeremy Vetock, and Matt Ward
Time Life Books: The Old West – The Mexican War by David Nevin

July
Time Life Books: The Old West – The Women by Joan Swallow Reiten
DK Star Wars: Beware the Sith by Shari Last
DK Star Wars: Mysteries of the Jedi by Elizabeth Dowsett and Shari Last
On Game Design by Chris Crawford
Time Life Books: The Old West – The Canadians by Ogden Tanner
DK Star Wars: The Clone Wars: What is a Sith Warrior? By Glenn Dakin
Realm of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness by Bryan Ansell, Mike Brunton, and Simon Forrest
Osprey Wargames 1: Dux Bellorum: Arthurian Wargaming Rules AD 367 - 793 by Daniel Mersey
Battlestar Galactica Vault: The Complete History of the Series 1978 - 2012 by Paul Ruditis
Osprey Wargames 2: A World Aflame by Paul Eaglestone

Aug
Osprey Wargames 4: Ronin – Skirmish Wargames in the Age of the Samurai by Craig Woodfield
Osprey Wargames 5: Of Gods and Mortals by Andrea Sfiligol
Making Magic by Edwin A Dawes & Arthur Setterington
DK The Lego Fan’s Guide
Time Life: The Old West: The Scouts by Keith Wheeler
Paper Towns by John Green
Codex Necrons (5th edition) by Matthew Ward
Remembering Woolworth’s: A Nostalgic History of the World’s Most Famous Five-and-Dime by Karen Plunkett-Powell

Rainbows - more than just pretty science?

Recently, at the same time as the passing of the same-sex marriage laws in The States, Facebook had a feature that let you change your avatar to add a rainbow effect. One of my friends was upset as she felt that people were changing their avatar even though they didn’t fully support the LGBTQ lifestyle. She was not impressed when I pointed out that some people just like rainbows. She felt that the rainbow was clearly a symbol of the LGBTQ lifestyle and didn’t like people co-opting it.

I didn’t press it with her as it seemed a sore point but it did get me thinking about how many groups has used the rainbow as their symbol over the years.

The bible has the rainbow as a covenant between God and Noah and the Jewish people after destroying the world with a flood.
For the Norse, Bifrost was a rainbow bridge leading from Midgard (Earth) to Asgard.
The rainbow has been linked to the Irish people – with leprechauns having their pots of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Pink Floyd fans could be seen sporting the rainbow from a prism patch or even the poster based on the 1973 Dark Side of the Moon album.
The LGB, then LGBT, and now LGBTQ movements have been using the rainbow flag, in a few variations since 1978.
If you grew up since the eighties, you probably caught Levar Burton on Reading Rainbow which ran on PBS from 1983 to 2006.
Tom Clancy wrote Rainbow 6 in 1998 about a fictional multinational counter-terrorist unit and a series of video games were based off of it.
In Guiding, the first level – below Brownies, is called Rainbows in the UK. (It is Daisy in the US, and Sparks in Canada)
Skittles has been running their “Taste the rainbow” campaign since 2009.
In 2010 My Little Pony came out with a new series - Friendship is Magic. Included is Rainbow Dash - a pony who has a ‘cutie mark’ on her flank of a rainbow colored lightning bolt.

Iron First - no longer Essential - now Epic

I was always a bit of a fan of Marvel’s Iron Fist since I first came across him in the Marvel Team-Up books. Apparently I’m not enough of a fan to collect his series or the Power Man Iron Fist series but still a fan of the character. I finally decided to get the issues and put the Essential Iron Fist on my wish list but never got it. It was also a good example of early John Byrne art. When I decided to buy it myself, The Essentials line had been discontinued.

Marvel had started collecting back issues in books with the Masterworks line back in 1987. They are beautiful hardcover books in full color and used to be about $30 each when they first started. They only cover about 10 issues at a time. I do have the first two Uncanny X-men books as those back issues were pricey. They did print two Iron Fist books – in 2011 and 2012 but they are very expensive now.

They also came out with an Essentials line in 1996. These are similar to the Cerebus phone books in that they contain 20 to 30 issues in black and white for about $30. They released one Iron Fist edition back in 2004 but that is no longer in print.

While I was looking around on the secondary market (Amazon and ebay), I came across the info that Marvel is replacing the Essential line with an Epic line. The Iron Fist book is one of the first set and came out in July so I was able to pick it up. It has the Marvel Premiere issues, the entire Iron Fist series, and the Marvel Team-Up issues. It’s softcover but in full color.