Old Toys

 As a child of the Eighties, I lived through a golden age of toys.  With the adoption of plastics, there was very little that could not be done for toys.  Model kits were still a common thing and, even though I never managed to get into them, model trains and rockets were readily available.

 

I had a few early Lego sets, from before the minifig, and some of the early space sets.  The non-rectangular fancy elements were very few and far between back then.  We would build spaceships, and hide secret compartments inside of our builds, but Lego was fairly pricy back then and I did not amass a huge collection.

 

I had even less Playmobil.  They were even more expensive than Lego back in the day but have become much more reasonable as they haven’t increased nearly as much as other toys have. 

 

Both of these companies have embraced licensing.  I picked up some Lego Scooby Doo sets, including the big castle.  I have yet to get around to building it though as I don’t yet have a good place to display it.

For the Playmobil, I bought a bunch of the Ghostbusters figures, and the Ecto-1.  I did not buy the building as again, I don’t have proper room for it.  I picked up the Scooby Doo gang and the Mystery Machine.  They had blind bags of the ghosts/creatures and I got most of the first wave.  I even picked up the Back to the Future figures, and got the Hoverboard Chase set and the Advent calendar on sale.  I finally saved up enough to get the Delorean.  I don’t have any interest in Marty’s Pickup Truck set except it includes the Jennifer Parker figure.

The James Bond vehicle and the A-Team Van are priced much too high for me, being over $100 each.  I don’t have enough interest to justify the cost.  The same is true for the Enterprise.  While it would be neat, at over $500, the price and size are so out of scope to even consider.

 

Now I have to save up for a Detolf from IKEA to be able to display them.  I have a space between the bookcases already.

Figure Painting Total - June 2022

I got some more Dust Tactics, giving me enough to field an Allies force.  I had a line on a core set that ended up not panning out.

Bought

Unmatched – Jurassic Park – Dr. Sattler VS T.Rex – 2

Dust Tactics – Allies – Corps Officers – 3

Dust Tactics – Allies – Tank Busters – 6

Dust Tactics – SSU – Hero pack – 3

Dust Tactics – SSU – Commissars – 5

Dust Tactics: Operation Cyclone – 2

Dust Tactics: Operation SeeLowe – 2

 

Painted

DLB – Starter – 1

DLB – Final Girls – 2

Reaper – Zombies – 5

 

 

June total – 23 figures bought, 8 figures painted

Running total 2022 – figures bought 123, figures painted 50

Figure Painting Total - May 2022

 I finally took the plunge and started to get into Dust.  I’m a bit late to the party, with the newest version, Dust 1947 being cancelled last September.  I was not able to find any starters yet but I was able to find some figures and Operation boxes which gives me the maps.  I have enough Axis for a starter army minus a walker, and have more figures on order.

I also started getting figures for Street Wars New York City, picking up some noble warriors – The Braves; as well as some extra figures.

 

 

Bought

Dust 1947 Allies Pounder/Hotdog – 1

Dust 1947 Allies Heroes of ASOCOM – 5

Dust 1947 SSU PLA/Spetsnaz Red Rain/Red Fury – 1

Dust Tactics Axis Ubertoten Assault Squad – 5

Dust Tactics Axis Ubertoten Suicide Squad – 5

Dust Tactics Operation Achilles – 3

Dust Tactics Operation Zverograd – 2

Dust Tactics SSU KV47 Recovery & Demolition Walker – 1

SWNYC – Braves – 9

SWNYC – Lee Raven – 1

SWNYC – NYPD Cops – 2

SWNYC – New Yorkers – 2

 

 

Painted

 

Dracula’s America – The Salem Sisterhood – 8

Dracula’s America – Spirit Creatures (Ghost Witch, Bukwus, Angry Spirit) – 3

DLB Starter – 1

DLB – Death on the Line – 1

Wizkids – Cowboys repaint – 2

 

 

May total – figures bought 37, figures painted 15

Running total 2022 – figures bought 100, figures painted 42

Figure Painting Total - April 2022

 I assembled the Necromantic Horror Blood Bowl team.

Bought

Unmatched – Hell’s Kitchen – 3

Unmatched – Redemption Row – 3


Painted

BM - Batwoman

DLB - 4 heroes, and 1 killer

Wizkids cowboys - 2

April total – figures bought 6, figures painted 8

Running total 2022 – figures bought 63, figures painted 35

Books read January - April 2022

 Jan

Italian Aces of World War 1  by Paolo Varriale

Mister Rogers Neighborhood: A Visual History by Melissa Wagner, Tim Lybarger, Jenna McGuiggan

American Aces of World War 1 by Norman Franks

 

Feb

Austro-Hungarian Aces of World War 1  by Christopher Chant

Early German Aces of World War 1 by Greg VanWyngarden

The Costume Technician’s Handbook by Rosemary Ingham & Liz Covey

 

Mar

Blood Bowl – Spike! Presents 2021 Almanac! by Games Workshop Limited

Frostgrave Ghost Archipelago: Lost Colossus by Joseph A McCullough

Frostgrave: Forgotten Pacts by Joseph A McCullough

British and Empire Aces of World War 1 by Christopher Shores

Aces of Jagstaffel 17 by Greg VanWyngarden

 

Apr

The Art of Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge by Amy Ratcliffe

A Billion Suns: Interstellar Fleet Battles by Mike Hutchinson

Aces of Jagdgeschwader Nr III by Greg VanWyngarden

 

Dust Tactics to Dust 1947

I keep looking at Dust but never got into it.  I had thought that it was in the same vein as Tannhauser, which I already have, but it is it’s own thing.

 

Tannhauser, the board game and expansions was published by a French company, Take On You, in 2006.  The system was bought by Fantasy Flight in 2009, and a revised edition was released in 2010.  The background is that World War 1 did not end and that it still rages on 35 years later.

 

Dust was created by Paolo Parente, a former fashion designer, who then became an artist for games and Magic cards.  He designed Dust as a series of 1/6 scale action figures, and then comics to go with them.  In his design World War II did not end thanks to the discovery of a crashed alien spacecraft in Antarctica.  This tech leads to the creation of large walking vehicles. 

 

He worked with Rackham to bring this to a game but they did not like the WW2 German forces, so they changed the setting slightly and designed AT-43 (After Trauma: 43) in 2006.  This was a miniature game with Weird War figures and man-sized walking tanks.  The company was spending more money on its fantasy line Confrontation, and ended up closing.

After that ended, he brought out Dust Wars with Image comics, and model kits in 1/35 and 1/48 scale.  There was also a Risk-like game that came out in 2009.  I had a bit of trouble finding it but was able to track down a copy of that when I thought it was an extension of the Tannhauser milieu.  I have also picked up the Battlefront Dust Tactics rules in a previous sale.

 

AEG helped bring together Dust Tactics as a board game with figures but this was bought by Fantasy Flight just before being released in 2010.  There were expansions and a revised set was published in 2011.  This led to Dust Warfare in 2012 as a gridless miniature game.  Another edition came out with a messy kickstarter in 2014 through Battlefront.

 

Then they got it back and published it themselves in 2016 as Dust 1947.  They had upgraded cards to be able to use figures from all the sets, and even brought out new factions in Cultists (Cthulhu), (Japanese), and Mercenaries.  They always had figures available in prepainted and also just primed but finally sold unassembled figures as well for a lower cost.  I just found out that they have stopped publications last year in 2021 partly due to the complications of production with the pandemic.

 

It’s a big system to get into.  I don’t know anyone locally who plays it.  I’m not looking to buy and store multiple forces for another game.  I’m not even a big World War 2 fan.  Now that it is a dead system it is going to be hard to track down figures.

But it is a pretty looking game with a great table presence.  It’s supposed to be fairly simple compared to heavy wargames, and has a really strong supportive following.  It will probably come out again at some point, especially since Paolo had plans for taking it into space and moving the setting forward to 1963 during the Cold War.  The rules are still available on their website so I will probably download them and give them another look.  I can keep an eye out for clearance sales and for people clearing their collections in lots.  If I can find someone to play with, I can always design counters for the figures and vehicles to try it out. 

Miniature Market is having a Spring cleaning sale and I missed picking up a few Dust Tactics operation/mission boxes for the figures and maps.   But I was able to pick up the Dust Warfare rules and a couple of the campaign books.

Figure Painting Total - March 2022

 I also picked up a second MU Wolverine that was already painted.  I just repainted the base to match my colors closer.  I’m not going to count that on the painting total.

 

Bought

BM – Red Robin – 1

DCU – Batman Villains – 6 (Bane, Clayface, Ra’s Al Ghul, the Riddler, Scarecrow, Solomon Grundy)

DCU – Legion of Doom – 6 (Black Manta, Cheetah, Grodd, Joker, Lex Luthor, Sinestro)

DCU – Superboy & Steel – 2

MU – The Incredible Hulk – 1

MU – Ms Marvel – 1

 

Painted

Black cat – 1 – Heroclix rebase

DLB – Attack of the Greys – 3

 

 

Mar total – figures bought 17, figures painted 4

Running total 2022 – figures bought 57, figures painted 19