Thor's Day Hero: Ron Swanson

"You may have thought you heard me say I wanted a lot of bacon and eggs, but what I said was: Give me all the bacon and eggs you have." -Ron Swanson

When looking at civilians to answer the call to the ranks of the Thor's Day Heroes one has to use a very stringent set of parameters. Fortunately Ron Swanson wrote the book on having just such a stringent set of parameters. When looking at the cast of Parks and Recreation, honestly, most of them are "favorite" chaaracters. You can only pick one however, err, not you per se but me, since I'm the commander supreme of the Thor's Day Heroes. Even then, I am both in awe, and intimidated by this guy. He knows how to use a gun, he loves steak, and his woodworking skills are without parallel, just don't ask him about his ex-wives. How can we afford to not have him on the team?

Thor's Day Hero: Butters

I'm not a huge South Park fan, never really was, but when I would hear someone talk about a particularly funny episode I would invariably find it, watch, and laugh for about twenty minutes straight. I'm no stranger to the show either and of all the characters, Butters has to be my favorite. He is the perpetually innocent and when the other characters are going off the deep end and cursing like sailors, he toes the line and gives a few "aww shucks" or couple of "oh hamburgers!" He did a brief stint as a maniacal supervillain as well, a villain that is still at the top of the wanted charts for the South Park police. Overall Butters is that likable 'buddy' you always want to have around. Admission here to the Thor's Day Heroes is a shoe-in, I just worry what might happen if he comes across Sarah Connor on a bad day.

Thor's Day Hero: Sergeant Lincoln Osiris

"I know who I am. I'm the dude playin' the dude, disguised as another dude!" -Kirk Lazarus

The first ten minutes of Tropic Thunder are too funny. The rest of the movie isn't bad, but it's hard to match the humor up front. In it, Robert Downey, jr. plays grizzled Vietnam veteran Lincoln Osiris. There's obviously a lot going on with the Lincoln character, considering in the movie within the movie aspect on top of everything else. Lincoln Osiris as character though? Great. Great lines, though none I can repeat here, great intensity, and great over-the-top action. If you haven't seen the movie, it's almost worth it just for Osiris alone. So forget that he's a character played by a character about a fake movie in a real movie, Lincoln Osiris is on the skids so "elevator up" for the Thor's Day Heroes.

Thor's Day Hero: Jack Burton

Nothing says "Happy Valentine's Day" like...Jack Burton? When Big Trouble in Little China hit the big screen back in 1986 it wasn't a smash success but I think there was a large chunk of viewers who became instant fans, my twelve year old self at the time being one of them.

Jack Burton would certainly think he's the hero of the movie, but is he really? He gets the girl, sure, and gets the bad guy, all right, but for the most part he was just always in the right place at the right time. It was a whole host of other characters that did the heavy lifting, so why aren't they being admitted into the Thor's Day Heroes? Well, Burton has style, he's quick with the one-liners, and he's a decent shot with the throwing knife. It's all in the reflexes you know. Welcome aboard Jack Burton, truck parking is behind the building.

Thor's Day Hero: Invader Zim

Looking at the calendar of upcoming events what do we have? Christmas and Kwanzaa around the corner, just finished up Chanukah, New Year's Eve on the horizon...what am I missing? Oh right, the end of the world tomorrow, or as I like to call it, the longest three-day weekend ever.

To give you guys an idea of the behind-the-scenes here at Mik's Minis, I queue up these posts for a while. A long while. LEGO Thursdays were written well in advance too, and Thor's Day Heroes is no exception. Time travel back ten months, to where I am right now, err, then. I'm sitting on the couch typing with post-Super Bowl analysis on in the background, since the Giants won gloriously last night. You know, last night ten months ago or so.

Maybe the end of the world was averted by daring oil-rig jockies riding stealth space shuttles. Maybe an alien armada was spotted at the edge of our solar system. Maybe the Mayan Overlords came back for their stolen gold. I don't know and as I type this I only care about one thing for today.

Invader Zim.

He fits the bill for Thor's Day Heroes and is solidly inducted into its ranks without question. If the end of the world is tomorrow, you can bet Invader Zim had something to do with it, taking out his obvious alien supremacy on us puny humans! Rock on Zim and welcome aboard, you can even bring along your buddy GIR.

Thor's Day Hero: The Big Lebowski

The dude abides, and now the dude resides...with the Thor's Day Heroes. Jeff "the Dude" Lebowski is a movie character that has gained immense cult fame, so much I don't even think the 'cult' tag is needed anymore, he's flat out popular.

Why? We all want to be him, in one fashion or another. The real world's responsibilities will never let us embrace 'dudeness' fully, but for an hour and a half we can at least live vicariously through him.

I loved Jeff Bridges' portrayal of this character and I often think how awesome the 1976 version of King Kong would've been had Bridges invented the Dude's persona for his role in that film. Welcome aboard Lebowski, we have bowling.

Thor's Day Hero: Natalie Portman

Well Natalie Portman was bound to happen along for Thor's Day Heroes sooner or later. She seems to always pop up in the movies I'm watching, and she always brings tons of intangibles to those roles. In fact, the amount of her geek credit alone for many of the roles she's taken on should be good enough reason to put her here:

• Leon the Professional
• Heat
• Mars Attacks
• All three Star Wars prequels
• V for Vendetta
• Your Highness
• Thor

Definitely nothing to sneeze at in that company. Not to mention her solid rap song on Saturday Night Live a few years back shows she's got quite the sense of humor. So welcome aboard Natalie, it's a motley crew so far but maybe you can help keep the peace.

Thor's Day Hero: Steve Zissou

Oceanographer, explorer, adventurer...Steve Zissou is all of these things and more. Driven by his passion for the sea, and to wreak vengeance upon the Jaguar Shark that ate his friend, Zissou is a charismatic whirlwind. Imagine Cousteau with a sidearm. He fights off pirates, rival oceanographers, film critics, and more to pursue his goals, where the means always justify the end. He knew this bartender, Kino, that made the best rum cannonball he ever tasted. I daresay that when the Thor's Day Heroes assemble, Zissou might be the force of personality it takes to keep them all in line.

"Anne-Marie, do all the interns get Glocks?" -Steve Zissou

Thor's Day Hero: The Tick

In the early nineties I worked in a comic book store, and like any good employee invested at least half of my weekly paycheck right back into the store itself. I read anything and everything I could get my hands on, but the quirkier the better. Well, along came the Tick, and you don't get much quirkier than that! I met Tick creator Ben Edlund at a con many, many years ago. He was very cool, very gracious, and an all around cool guy.

The Tick as a hero isn't all there, having escaped from a mental institute with apparent amnesia. He is nigh invulnerable though, with super strength, and super-zany speeches and catchphrases the Tick does what any tights-wearing person in his situation would do; fight crime. He's surrounded by an equally zany cast of characters and for a while enjoyed a multi-media acceptance in the form of comics, a cartoon, and even a live-action tv show. The latter of which was awesome, don't let any naysayers tell you differently!

Mutant Pig(gy) Bank

Picked up a mutant piggy bank. Gamma oinktastic.

The Homage Autobiography

When I posted my "Terrible Tower" a couple of weeks ago my buddy Spacejacker of Tiny Solitary Soldiers sent me this hilarious image. If I were to write a book, well I have no idea what it would be about, but with this self-fulfilling prophecy I guess I would have to name it "I Wanted to Build a Tower, so I did." Anybody know any desperate publishers?

Motivational Monday: That's a Lot of Lager

I had these particularly large cans of Yuengling at our last Viking game, coupled with the excellent sculpted pose of the wee Viking in the foreground and voila!

This is my humble tribute to Meatball's longstanding Motivational Mondays of My Dice Hate Me. I figured we needed at least one more to kick the week off right.

Shut 'em Down

Here's a sweet video made by my twelve year old nephew and his sister, my seven year old niece. This is the same nephew who starred in Main Versus Second that I showed here four years ago. If you haven't checked that one out you should. Enjoy!

LEGO Thursday: Party On!

This one's an old file indeed. These were going to go out on invitations printed up for a party. We ended up just calling people on the phone, but I think this would've been cool to get in the mail as a postcard. So, umm, party on!

Mecha-Love Power

My niece got married not too long ago, making me feel even older of course since she was the flower girl at my wedding sixteen years ago. Anyway, they had an empty scrapbook book and a table full of Sharpies. They hadn't considered the "Uncle Mik" factor...

Lion vs. Tuna

I saw The Other Guys the, ahem, other day. It was a clever buddy-cop movie, nothing spectacular, largely forgettable, but it did have its moments. Anyway, this scene was probably one of the funniest of the whole movie, so if you don't feel like sitting through the whole thing, I've just saved you the trouble! Enjoy!

You Can't Sever the Horn of a Minotaur

Get your quest on indeed. Finally I got to sneak out and go see Your Highness the other night. You've seen the trailers I'm sure, and unlike what you may think, there are plenty more one-liners you haven't seen too.


The movie is what you expect, pretty much a stoner-roadtrip movie that takes place in a fantasy setting. The accents are suitably "roleplaying fantasy", but the dialog was decidedly modern in both language and inflection (and especially humor). The crassness of the movie from opening to closing was also hilarious, just know you're going into an incredibly raunchy adventure from the get-go.


The fantasy trappings are all there, and the effects such as monsters and magic are actually well done. The story itself is pretty much a straight-forward quest with a few twists and turns. I was looking forward to seeing Natalie Portman in leather armor wielding a bow, and in that respect I wasn't disappointed either. I've always like the redneck-savvy Danny McBride too, and in a lot of ways the movie focuses around him and his transformation from slothful and inept second-born to honored and bloodied warrior.

If you're looking for a fun 'beer and pretzels' type movie, or have had a character cut off part of a critter to wear as a trophy, then you're going to enjoy this movie. Face it, most of the fantasy movies that come out nowadays aren't that great anyway, and this one goes in the opposite direction in terms of seriousness to great effect.

Mik's Moment of Zen, pt. 16

".40 cal happiness, at seven yards."

Mik's Moment of Zen, pt. 10

"Best convention booth marketing ploy...ever."

Kung-Fu Cavemen...from the Future!

If you hang out at all with the six to ten year old crowds you may have already heard of Captain Underpants. Well from the creative minds over at the Underpants dynasty comes this gem of a book, Ook and Gluk Kung-Fu Cavemen from the Future.

This is a fun read, plain and simple. Its title says it all really, and the adventures of Ook and Gluk (pronounced like 'book' and 'duck') are fairly epic. It's fairly epic too in the style of writing, it's hashed out as if drawn and written by a pair of ten year olds, all the way down to the atrocious misspelled words. Deeper still however is a sublime humor that us adults are going to sit back and say, "Hey, that's actually pretty good."

It's purely a graphic novel and has all kinds of wackiness to it, such as one-page chapters and "flip-o-rama" action sequences. Quite honestly, you could use any number of ideas in here for a light-hearted romp in RPG territory too, there's plenty of ideas lying within. So treat yourself to something completely different next time you sit down for a read.