Showing posts with label star wars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label star wars. Show all posts

Monday, March 18, 2013

Monday Night Miller 018 ~ Star Basterds

Hey Everybody! Monday Night Miller time! Tonight I bring you something from a long time ago and a galaxy far, far away... 

Hopefully the devout readers of Miks Minis remember a play report post of Savage Worlds ala Star Wars meets Inglorious Basterds back in September 2009. Holy cow thats a while ago, yet, I still remember that game like it was yesterday! If not you can check it out hereI can honestly say it is one of the best games to date that I've played with the Minions gaming group. It was so much fun in fact that Andy has agreed to run some more "Star Basterds" goodness later this year. I am so eager to play this great setting again that my gears have been spinning since it was first mentioned a couple of months ago. I took that inspiration and drew up a character concept I had for the first session but never got to explore. This character is so cool, at least to me (opposing opinions and comments welcome below), that it ended up becoming two characters in one. Now originally I had doodled this pair up during the game but have since misplaced the drawing. I'll be sure to post it here when I find it. 

The core half of the background behind the duo's concept is of a lone jawa left behind, barely clinging to life, after an attack by some sand troopers destroyed a convoy of Sand Crawlers believed to be housing rebel forces and conspirators. In the end there were no rebels within the massive Crawlers however all the jawa's loved ones had been massacred and left to be forgotten in the burning wreckage as the sands of Tatooine buried the horrific site from history. The jawa managed to survive the onslaught and harsh desert conditions driven only by its unspoken vow to do whatever it could to make the Empire pay for these heinous acts. A once passive creature turned into a blood hungry soldier in an ongoing war with a great evil.

The other half of the background is that of a B-1 Battle Droid discovered amongst the ruins of a  dilapidated Trade Federation bunker. As the aforementioned Jawa wandered the desert ,barely maintaining it's sanity, it stumbled upon the ruins and took shelter within during a terrible sand storm and found his future companion. The droid was physically just a fraction of its former self. Its lower half blasted away during an exchange of fire as a Tusken attack breached the inner command stations. Unable to resist its nature to scavenge, the Jawa went to work looking around for whatever it could find of value. Imagine its surprise when the droid it was pulling from some rubble startled to life. The droid was a sentient model and its mental capacity had deteriorated substantially as it had been on its own for quite some time. The resulting personalty was that of a quirky individual to say the least. It had a penchant to speak and act before thinking in addition to having a knack of not understanding the seriousness of tense situations. 

Originally the jawa had intended to sell off the droid as that model had become a rare find in recent history. However the droid proved quite useful in its knowledge of tactics and what it could remember of the locations of Federation holdings on Tatooine. A mutual respect developed and in time the jawa had befriended the droid and even managed to tinker with and fine tune its inner wirings making it a better shot, a long standing problem of battle droids and storm troopers alike. Together they become a formidable force to be reckoned with. A jawa who rarely speaks and a droid that does more than enough talking for the both of them. Not long after they joined a group in the business of doin' one thing and one thing only... killin' Storm Troopers.

Aldo & Raine!


Enjoy!


Thursday, July 12, 2012

Thor's Day Hero: Admiral Piett


Let's face it, there was quite a shortage of named Imperial characters you could actually put a face to in the original (and only) Star Wars trilogy. If there's any franchise that can make entire mountain chains in canonized fiction out of mere crumbs from the movies, it's Star Wars. In this regard they've got Piett here from birth, detailing all of his exploits that led up to his position in the movies. I'm all for canonized fiction, but sometimes enough is enough.

To me he'll always be that guy who was in the right place at the right time, watching a psychotic, out-of-control Dark Lord of the Sith wastefully long-distance strangling perfectly good career officers. It's still a cool moment in the movies when he gets his field promotion to admiral, especially the emphasis Vader puts on the word itself. So here's to you Piett, every group needs a man in uniform, so it might as well be you.

Monday, June 18, 2012

Defining Game #7: WEG Star Wars

7. Star Wars RPG, 1988

I remember when this game first came out, it was a roleplaying game...set in the Star Wars universe. "What? Are you kidding me?", I thought. That was so awesome at the time, and West End Games had an instant hit, I was blown away.

It's really funny, in high school I got in with a group that was playing Star Wars, this would also be the first time I went somewhere else to game other than home (or the neighborhood). Not being old enough to drive however my folks had to drive me there. The house they drove me to is in the neighborhood I currently live in, in fact it's just one street over. It's kind of neat to think about. Anyway, WEG Star Wars was great fun, it was a great license and with the sourcebooks I got to learn so much more about my favorite franchise (at the time) to boot.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

The End of LEGO Thursday?


I can't believe this is posting at the end of December, the end of the year. Back when I started LEGO Thursdays I thought it might be good for, maybe, the summer. But the entirety of 2011? Forget it. I'm typing this in the middle of June, so it's kind of weird.

I joked with my wife that if some terrible fate should befall me that I've got LEGO posts queued up for the next six months, so I'll still be blogging from beyond the grave! Kind of morbid to think of, but also kind of neat that my geek legacy would be both this blog and LEGO content. Err, also kind of sad if that's the extent of my legacy!

But let's not dwell on that! Last week's Water Merchant and Bodyguard was the last of the archived images and content so I thought it would be a good transition.

I've always got Lego content, just because the archived stuff has dried up doesn't mean I can't keep it going with new stuff. I have nothing for this post but since it is literally the last Thursday before 2012, we have to have something!

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Mik's Moment of Zen, pt. 2


"Nothing like old school Star Wars to cheer up the infirmed."

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Tantive IV Battle Map


In addition to the Hordes poster I'm giving away, look what else I found while cleaning out the downstairs closet this last weekend! This thing is absolutely massive, I've forgotten just how cool it really is (and no, it's not up for grabs, sorry). The digital file is long gone, this is all that's left so I think I can truly say it's a one of a kind.

For scale, my game table is eight feet long, so this map of Star Wars' iconic Corellian Corvette is, I'm guessing, ten feet long? Way back when, way way back in another lifetime I used to work at a retail office copy shop. A gaming buddy (who also worked there) and I used to make all kinds of these maps to be used with all kinds of miniatures and games. The bulk of them were for Heroclix, and we had some great battle maps; graveyards, subway stations, a Skrull spaceship, but those haven't turned up and I doubt they will now.

This map was the last one we made, we made it big...almost too big!

The command deck, each square equals one inch

Main corridor with escape pods

Aft corridor

Engineering

25mm figs checking out the accommodations

15mm figs hanging out near the engine core

28mm figs traversing a long corridor

Now that this map has resurfaced I just have to get some use out of it! As you see from the comparison shots, the scale will be right on for pretty much whatever we do. It would be fun to try some Space Hulk on a true hulk of course, but any kind of boarding action will do. I remember there being some star-ship rules in AE Bounty as well. Whatever we decide to do with it, you're sure to see more. I may have to get another table to add to the end of the regular one just to accommodate everything. Enjoy!

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Star Wars Smugglers and Scoundrels


Finally some non-blurry pics of some of the last figs off the bench for the year. I've included the Star Frontiers Sathar in here because as pointed out, he scales well, and fits the 'style' of both the Star Wars universe and the West End Games classic sculpts.



First up are "Hoth" Han and Chewbacca...'nuff said


Next up are the Sathar and a Mon Calamari. I painted the Mon Cal in traditional "Home One" uniform, just 'cause it takes me back to my action figure days with Admiral Ackbar. The closeup pic here leaves his eyes a little something to be desired, so I went back in post-photo and tried to fix them a bit.

He and the Sathar will be another smuggler duo like Han and Chewie, with the space-suited big guy acting as the first mate, and the refined Mon Cal and the captain. They'll have an organic designed light freighter in the Mon Cal style.


I dropped the Sathar on the concrete right before I sprayed them with Dull Cote. You can see the paint threatening to crack off his eye lens. I fixed this by licking the area and smoothing it down with my finger. It tasted like Dull Cote, which is gross to say the least.

I'm also trying out a new camera here and don't have the controls quite down yet. I may default to "old faithful" when it comes to minis, because I know how to get it to take good pictures of minis, this fancy new one escapes me.

So that's it, out of "the last ten", I am now finished! I've exceeded my goal for figs painted this year by a mile and can rest for the rest of 2010. You know, I was thinking though, it's one thing to say I painted 200 figs for the year. It's another thing to say I painted OVER 200 figs for the year, even if "over" just means one more fig. I'll see what I can do, check back tomorrow!

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

These Actually Are the Droids You're Looking For...


The six Star Frontiers robots are finished! This is a blurry pic from my dumb-phone, but consider it a teaser for now. I like how these turned out and I'd like to give them their due with a real post. I just wanted to get these posted here before the new year so they'd "officially" count for the 2010 totals. You can see the Star Frontiers Sathar in the background, he (she?) is basically done as well, I just need to base him (her?).

I'll be honest, in the beginning I was just going to do a silver drybrush on all these guys and call it a day, shooting for quantity over quality. There was such an overwhelmingly positive response from you guys though I was inspired to do more. I broke the six 'bot group into three pairs and painted each pair with a specific "theme" in mind.


Hoth Han and Chewie painted up much faster than I thought as well. I tell you, these old West End Games sculpts are really great. The Han Solo fig actually looks like Harrison Ford, and has plenty of detail, not bad for "true" 25mm scale. Chewbacca was a good sculpt as well, but it seems to me kind of hard to screw up a Wookie sculpt.

Another blurry pic, sorry, consider it another teaser pic. I wanted to get these guys in under the wire for 2010 as well. No time for more, I've still got two figs to paint up and an 'end of the year' post to whip up as well. Enjoy!

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Ten More for 2010


Here they are, as the title says, these are the last (planned) figs for the 2010 fiscal painting year. After posting my Hordes of the Things Orc Army the other day (which I'm still pretty proud of by the way) and I realized I had logged 190 painted figs for the year. That leaves me with just ten more to go to hit 200. I didn't set out this year with a particular goal in mind, but I do like nice, round numbers, and 200 is just such a number, but what to paint?

World War II tanks are pretty easy, but I don't have any built right now. I just built those Sons of Minos space marines, but they're pretty detailed and I'd like to do them right. There's still 2/3 of my HotT army just sitting around, but I'll give them a rest for now. Looking through my minis cold storage I ran across some vintage gems, that just happen to be single-mold and should paint up quick and easy.


Back during all of my Fall-In! coverage I had posted pic with my loot, including an unopened Star Frontiers box. This is NOT the box, but I said in that post I'd follow-up and never did. The first minis I ever got were the same as the figs in that unopened box. That was around 1982, and might explain why I lean towards sci-fi instead of fantasy; unlike most I did not cut my teeth on Dungeons and Dragons, but Star Frontiers instead.

Well that box of player characters wasn't the only one, I also have this box of Star Frontiers Robots, and although it is opened it is intact (unlike my other original box). These sculpts are great and don't even feel that old-school, plus, they're robots so they should be a breeze to paint up, even if I go semi-elaborate.

Here's the back of the box with its contents, and their future bases


Well if my goal is to paint up ten figs, the Star Frontiers Robot box only get me a little over halfway. Poking around some more I found one of the original Star Frontiers figs from the OTHER box, a space-suited Sathar! I didn't think about it, but this also means I'm about to paint up one of the first figs I ever owned. Add this one to my first painted fig ever.

Alongside the Sathar are a few characters that should be familiar; Han Solo, Chewbacca, and a Mon Calamari. Mon Calamari George, really? You named them directly after squid, you didn't even try to disguise it? These are figs from West End Games' Star Wars line out of the late 1980's. Compared to the venerable Star Frontiers figs these guys feel downright modern!

This "crew" has a nice feel to it, kind of like those non-canon, classic pulp Han Solo novels. You've got Han and Chewie, doing their thing, plus some yet-named character Mon Cal, and a big ole Sathar in a space suit. The Mon Cal and the Sathar could be their own smuggler duo that had to team up with the crew of the Falcon to tackle some mutual goal. Maybe it's to fight all those Star Frontiers robots?


So there you have, once I get these painted, I should hit 200 figs on the year. It's not a done deal, I have to actually paint them, but I feel confident going into to it. As you can see from the bottoms of the bases here it's not every day you get to paint up 27 year old miniatures either! The fact that I'm the first owner of these dates me incredibly, but it's all good. So enjoy, and get ready for the new year.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

From the Cutting Room Floor...


Syx-66 and Crash Starslayer

Two characters didn't quite make the roll call for the Star Wars one-shot we played not long ago, Syx-66 the assassin droid, and Crash Starslayer, Jedi adventurer. We had three players at the table, plus a GM, and had anyone else shown up that night, these were just a couple of 'suggestions' I built up beforehand. A force user and android would've been a couple of cool additions to add to the overall composition of the group though...


Crash Starslayer is a Jedi, true, but reckless to a fault. He jumps headfirst into the fray and seldom looks back. He relies on his force talents to pull his arse out of the frying pan time and time again, and were it not for his single-minded pursuit of righteousness, he could become easy prey for recruitment over to the Dark Side. Undisciplined and unconventional, Crash is kept at arm's length by the Rebellion, where he does as much harm as good.


Syx-66 was once a premiere assassin droid, top of the line, and had a spotless service record. Until the day he found himself marooned on a lush jungle moon and cut off from communications. The moon itself was well outside the trade lanes and core worlds, making it most isolated indeed. The years passed Syx-66 by, which soon became decades, and then centuries. He passed the time interacting with the non-sentient animal life on the moon and was able to keep his systems charged through magnetic and solar means. Lifetimes later a salvage crew found Syx-66 in a dormant state and took him off-world. While repairing his body and getting ready to wipe his memory, Syx-66 suddenly came to, stole a shuttle and escaped the salvage ship. Since then it has plied its skills in the bounty hunting trade and hopes to one day find and return to the uncharted moon it had called home for so long.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Inglorious (Lego Star Wars) Basterds


The Rebels

So one of the more recent members to join our gaming group in the last couple of years, the second Chris (Chrispy) stepped into the shoes of our long-time GM, Rucht, who had the audacity to move out of town. Chrispy "allegedly" likes running games, and for a group in sore need of a GM, voila. So the other day he had an idea, he had just seen Inglorious Basterds, and he happened to be getting some of the nifty Star Wars Legos around the same time...put two and two together, and you've got one heck of a set up for a one-shot RPG! We went with the Savage Worlds rules, which I have always heard good things about, but never had the chance to actually get to play. More on them later, but they lived up to the hype.


Krynn Kora, Kel Dor Bounty Hunter

I really wanted to play a Gand Findsman, but we didn't have the stats, so instead of fudge the stats I opted for another facemask re-breather race, the Kel Dor. If you're playing a Star Wars character, you've got to play a bounty hunter, right? I played him as a hunter who had worked for the Empire, but after his last assignment, instead of a paycheck, the Empire put a bomb in his ship's engine. He managed to escape, just barely, and he tried to collect his payment nonetheless. All he has wanted was to be paid, now it's personal.

I tried to split my skills and stats as best as possible, staying well-rounded, but not being a jack-o-all-trades. I went decent smarts and agility, and favored 'hunter' type skills such as streetwise, piloting, and shooting; and a little repair and tracking too.

I opted for a red flight suit ('cause all cool bounty hunters wear their flight suits everywhere, like Bossk!), and some decent armor too. He wears not only his facial methane re-breather, but a mask as well for extra intimidating power! He wears blast armor and a visored helmet. For weapons he carries a pair of heavy blasters with a holster on each leg, and on a magnetic plate on his rear armor he keeps a blaster carbine tucked away (take your pick, either Halo style or Mass Effect). In a boot he has a vibroblade, and on his belt up front a pair of grenades. I've been using orthodontist rubber bands lately to create bandoleers and such on my minifigs. I find that Brickarms' grenades "clip" perfectly to these rubber bands, and I'm able to stow extra gear and weapons like I have on the left.



Lieux Gherrhig, Duros Assassin

Chri3' character is of the Duros race, mainly because we had Duros stats, and his mini-fig favored their look. The neat thing about Chri3 is that he shows up with his own mini-figs...or is he stepping on toes? Just kidding, haha! I never did catch his background, I just know his character is younger than average and trying to get in on a career that favors his deadly skills. I think he was working for the Empire, and much like my character, they gave him the shaft instead of a paycheck, apt reason for him to join the upstart Rebellion.


Dib Dub, Sullustan Sniper

Andy opted for a Sullustan, and in an unprecedented move, spoke as a Sullustan! That's right, throughout the night, heck, at about 98% of game time, Andy spoke in gibberish. Before the game he remarked how there's always that character in the Star Wars movie that you can't understand on screen, and there's zero subtitles, but everyone else seems to know exactly what they're saying (Chewbacca, R2-D2, Nien Numb...). Of course it was up to us to interpret, which can lead to many humorous situations. To his credit, Andy did begin to pantomime his desires after a while, since you can only 'misinterpret' the alien so much.

Did you know Sullustans, although completely bald, are "fabulous hairdressers"? Neither did we, but according to SW canon they are. Andy worked this into his background, as a former carnival sideshow attraction who performed amazing acts of sharpshooting and daring stunts. His access allowed him to travel the galaxy, entertaining Imperial Dignitaries. If at times, a shot went errant and took one of said dignitaries out...so be it. After a while the Empire caught on and Dib Dub became a wanted man, err, alien on the run.


Chri3 whips up another solid character profile sketch

As I slid my character sheet over to Chri3 in our Dark Heresy game, Andy did likewise this time around. "I want a Sullustan with an Elvis pompadour!", once again, ask and you shall receive. Since Dib Dub is bald, we concluded his hair was a weave.


Massacre at Krayt Ridge!

The Rebellion gave us a ship, an arsenal of weapons, and free reign to go cause as much havoc on the Empire as possible. Of course, if caught we were on our own, without backup or rescue coming...ever. Using our unique skills, we are able to conduct a guerrilla war of terror-filled wetworks. Our first target was an Imperial Moff, holed up on backwater Tattooine with a Twi'lek dancer. It is about a year after the "farm boy blew up the space station", so many Imperials were keeping low profiles, like our Moff target.

Our original plan, okay, my original plan was to capture the dancer, implant explosives in her, then detonate her when she was in close contact with the Moff. We had a 21-b medical droid on board, named 'Rusty', but we didn't know if it was up to a complex procedure like that. Plan B was to attack the night club, car-bomb style, but using an explosive-laden Dewback or Ronto (or both!) instead, park 'em next to the nightclub, and 'splode them.

First we were itching for a fight, and needed to draw some of the Imperial troops away from the city. We were going to find a Sandtrooper patrol and bushwhack them. We also wanted to make it look like an attack by Tusken Raiders, so first we had to find some Raiders to bushwhack. Following their Bantha tracks proved easy and we found a large group of them preparing camp. Dib Dub roared the engine of our rented landspeeder into their midst with wild abandon, smashing many aside. We jumped out and began to efficiently dispatch the rest. Our R5 unit was freaking out at the atrocities it was witnessing.

Once we had enough bodies and weapons to plant at the scene of the next battle, we took off once again, Krynn Kora using his tracking to locate an Imperial patrol.


Massacre at Carbunkle Canyon!

We had time to lay out an ambush, so put the pile of Tusken Raiders in the middle of the patrol route. We also parked our R5 unit there as well. Dib Dub dug in some distance off with his combination Force Pike / sniper rifle, the Duros hid behind some rocks, and my character buried himself under the sand, close to where the bait was laid.


As we had hoped, seeing the pile of Tusken bodies, and a fully functional R5 unit to boot gave the troops enough pause to stop and investigate. On queue the rebels opened fire on them, catching them in a crossfire. Dib Dub's single shot rifle bucked on its bipod and he sent energy bolts into the Sandtroopers' repulsorcraft. He took out the driver in a single shot and hammered away at the others. Lieux Gherrhig emerged from cover, firing his carbine on rapid fire, pinning down those troopers he didn't outright dispatch. Krynn Kora emerged from the sand right next to the craft, drawing both heavy blasters from their holsters and began firing on the troopers. Honestly, dual-shooting wasn't that effective, and Chrispy reminded me that I didn't have to shoot two pistols at once...but where's the fun in that?!?!


Die Imperial scum!

The Sandtroopers had much more bite to them than the Tusken, but it was the righteous might of the Rebellion that prevailed (and our bloodthirsty ruthlessness). We placed the Tusken bodies around the site and created a convincing looking battle that pitted the sand people against the Sandtroopers. All the while our R5 beeped and whooped in surprise and shock, having seen far too much carnage for his sensitive droid feelings. We had to have a "little talk" with the astromech, just to make sure we were all on the same page...and if he dared repeat anything that he saw, we'd slag him and toss him out an airlock.


"Listen here you little pile of bolts..."

The battle we staged worked as more patrols were sent to investigate, and even more sent on wider patrols around the city. A crack team of troopers was even sent out to bring the Tusken to justice. This left the Mos Eisley garrison basically empty, and all the Moff had left to him were a handful of guards when we made our move.

We took two Dewbacks and loaded them down with saddlebags of explosives. Each one was tethered off on adjacent corners of the night club where we knew the dancer to perform and the Moff to frequent. Dib Dub set up on the roof top across the street with his rifle, Lieux lurked in the alley out back, carbine ready, and Krynn Kora waited on the sidewalk across the street with the R5 unit. The Dewbacks erupted simultaneously, sending thundering shockwaves through the streets and lighting up the night sky with columns of flame. The mud brick walls, though reinforced, buckled and collapsed under the explosion.

Sandtroopers and patrons stumbled out the door, deafened and choking with smoke and debris, the former hastily stripping off their helmets to gasp for fresher air. This made Dib Dub's task on the rooftop even easier as he placed his precise shots time and time again. While the walls still crumbled down, Krynn Kora leapt through the hole in the front, pistols drawn and picked off Imperials as he searched for the Moff. Lieux came through the back, doing the same, cutting a path through the panicked with his rapid-firing carbine.

Bloodied and crippled, but still very much alive, the rebels found the Moff and drug him out into the street. Sirens could heard in the background, and panic gripped the streets. Dib Dub joined Krynn and Lieux and the three exacted their own brand of justice then and there, pausing only long enough to drag him to the garrison and string him up on the door. The three rebels, their astromech droid, and a newly found friend made their way through the streets to the docking bay that held their ship as troops descended upon the ruins of the nightclub.

The modified light freighter roared out of the atmosphere, fast enough to avoid the Imperial cordon that was slow to form. Krynn Kora piloted the controls in the cockpit with Lieux riding in the co-pilot's seat. Behind them sat Dib Dub, his fingers drumming on the metallic head of the R5, which involuntarily shook, or beeped, or both at sporadic intervals. The R5 unit was clearly past the edge of his sanity threshold. As they cleared the gravity well of the planet, the form of a scantily clad and curvaceous body entered the cockpit from the rear as the tentacled head of the Twi'lek dancer poked into view. "So, you boys got any food on this boat? I'm starving..." The R5 unit shook once, and let out a long, low whistle.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

This Week in Pictures


Chain Halberd!

I had to do some heavy duty trimming of some pine trees that were entangling some of my lines. So not only did I get to irresponsibly use wacky power tools, but it looked just like a chainsword-on-a-stick. I thought that was a pretty cool feature, I don't know if the neighbors I borrowed it from did or not.


Me and a Jedi chick at Free Comic Book Day


Captain Rex meets Captain Chica

I've mentioned my wife a couple of times before, especially when talking about all the square footage she has so graciously given over to my geek pursuits. She's not a gamer wife though, so it was too good to pass on incriminating photos of her geeking it up.




After this was taken my wife enacted Order 66


No, it's not me with a close shave, haha. Digging up pics online to link in a post from earlier this week I ran across this one. It wasn't what I needed at the time, so I didn't use it, but I thought it was way too cool to pass up anyway. This guy's whipped up an excellent Priest of Sigmar outfit that looks very convincing.


Reduce, reuse, recycle...and RAVAGE!

Here's a sneak peek of a SuperSystem team I have on the backburner. After looking at this pic, I'm tempted to just dip them and base them and call it a day. No, that would be too easy, I may have to give these guys their proper due and actually paint them up. Obviously this will be a nature themed super team with a hefty mix of brawlers, bricks, flyers, speedsters, and the like. Most of these are just old Mage Knight figs I had laying around, with the exception being an old GW Treeman, and a Heroclix unique Wasp. My cost here is basically zero since all of these were just lying around my odds and ends.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Custom Clone Wars Minifigs





Morgan 190 is a prominent builder in the world of AFOL's*, and his stuff has a large pension for Star Wars to boot. I wish I had time to ply the intarweb, looking for cool MOC's**, but I let the fabulous Brother's Brick site do the searching for me, and then pass the savings on to you.

I am not up to speed with all of the Clone Wars action going down nowadays, it's definitely being catered to a different demographic, however, if these custom made minifigs are any indication of the colorful characters therein, a closer look might be in order. Check out M190's Flikr photostream for the rest of the cast.



* AFOL-Adult Fan of Lego
** MOC-My Own Creation

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Clone Wars Midnight Sale


Here was the scene just before midnight outside my local Toys R Us last Friday night. In celebration for the upcoming animated Clone Wars movie, select locations were having a midnight madness sale debuting the brand new toys. We arrived about fifteen minutes early, and as you see there was a good-sized crowd already. Another twenty or so people would show up before the doors actually opened.


Of course Vader's 501st Legion was present for the event, making their second appearance on the blog. The Fett outfit was top notch, and the rest weren't too shabby either. I question the scale on some of the characters though. For reference sake, I'm barely five and a half feet tall, so that makes for one incredibly tall Stormtrooper and one surprisingly short Jedi.


Once inside there was a sizable area and display dedicated to the new stuff. You had access to the whole store, but this was where all the action was.


There were more middle-aged men clamoring for the new figures than kids, heh. That's Andy in the middle with the dark shirt and bald spot. No, not him, the other one, ha. The figures looked cool, and if there were more of the animated style available, I might have picked a couple up, but I was there for the Legos of course.


#7676 Republic Attack Gunship: This was the MVP of the night. It also weighed in at the most expensive. I would've gladly snatched this up had I been prepared monetarily. It's a big set, and a nice remake of the first Gunship Lego set that came out a couple of years back. I gotta pick one of these up sooner than later.


#7673 MagnaGuard Starfighter: On the left, this spaceship was absolutely massive. It actually has some very nice lines and detailing that makes me want to pick it up eventually. The downside is that its mini-figs are based off the kinda lame Battle Droid frames. They do sport some interesting cowl/capes though.

#7674 V-19 Torrent: On the right, this is the set that I was hoping to pick up that night. This Clone attack craft just looks great, and borrowing a term from the Lego community, it's looks very "swooshable". I figured it'd be about a thirty dollar set, too bad I was only half right, sixty bucks, yikes. Instead of going in the shopping cart, it just got added to the wish list.



#7680 The Twilight: Wow, this one so underwhelmed me it's not even funny. It's giant, clunky version of a blocky B-Wing fighter, finished off in a very uninspiring monochromatic gray. Not only that, but if you look at the picture, there's not even a windshield for the cockpit, your figs would be exposed to space, 'sup with that? Throw in the equally unbelievable price tag, and you've got a set I'll be leaving on the shelves.


#7675 AT-TE Walker: This one completely caught me off guard, it was cool, very cool. It's a high dollar set though, but I see myself picking it up at one point as well. It's an early prototype of the AT-AT, obviously, and it comes with a nifty set of mini-figs, plus lots of parts and details. As with the Gunship, this version seems to look much better than it's predecessor.


#7681 Separatist Spider Droid: The cheapest set (so far) of the Clone Wars line, and at thirty bucks I don't know if I want to pick it up for the pieces, or for the two Clone figs alone. I'm really hoping there will be a good number of lower price point sets to come out, I'm a little surprised there's not any yet. I thought I saw a small set previewed from a toy show that was just three troopers on speeder bikes, but I can't seem to find it now.