Category Archives: lego minifigs

lego minifigs

Not a hipster game night

game night, lego minifigs, Munchkin, tabletop

Last night there was another game night round mine. The wolf pack had been relocated next door to spend the evening with Nan. Well I have to look out for the safety of my guests. It wouldn't be right having a guest mauled and eaten by the attack chihuahua.

The first game to the table was Star Fluxx. Star Fluxx is a favourite of my students, and I thought might be a good start to the evening. Star Fluxx is a science fiction themed version of the game Fluxx. The game starts off with the simple rules of draw a card and play a card. After that who knows what the rules will be or how you will win. That is all decided by the cards played. One card may make it that you have to draw three cards, another may add the rule that you have to play every card in your hand each time. Some one may play a card that changes what the goal (win condition) of the game is. Basically the game is in a constant state of flux (get it?) The first game of Star Fluxx we played was probably the shortest game I've played. It lasted for about four rounds. The second game last a little longer but not by much.

Our second game of the evening was Tokaido. In Tokaido you are traveling from Edo to Kyoto, trying to have the best experience possible by visiting temples, bathing in hot springs, painting incredible views, visiting temples, shopping and eating great food at inns. Which I didn't explain very well, and at the start the other players were not getting the game or enjoying it much. But once it clicked after two or three turns they started to enjoy it. By the end of the game I think everyone was getting into the game and having a good time.

Super Munchkin is a super hero themed version of Munchkin. Even so it's still all about the loot baby! Lots of dealing, undercutting, backstabbing, wandering monsters suddenly appearing, people being suspiciously helpful to others, all the elements of a great game of Munchkin. At the end there was three of us that could of won it. But the eventual winner really did deserve the win, we threw every wandering monster, monster power up, action we could or had left to try and stop them winning. But to no avail, our attempts failed and then super leaped over the finish line to win. Did I say that Munchkin is another of my students favourite games?

The penultimate game of the evening was Cash 'n Guns 2. I'd previously only played this game once with Nath at last years Eurogamer in the table top playing area. Basically Cash 'n Guns recreates the Mexican stand off, chose your favourite movie that has one whether it's the one from the end of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly in the cementary, or maybe like the one in Reservoir Dogs. The game plays upto eight players, is reasonably quick to play, quick to explain, and fun to play. It's also one of the few games I know where being the eldest pays off! Each player in the game takes on the role of being a gangster during the splitting up of the spoils of a big robbery. One player becomes the Godfather (the eldest person at the start of the game) and remains the Godfather until some-one else takes over the mantle by taking the Godfather token during the splitting of the spoils at the end of each round. It's handy being the Godfather because you can ask a player to “reconsider” who they point their gun at. But the Godfather also gets first pick of the loot. The winner after eight rounds is the player with the most loot and alive at the end. It's safe to say I didn't win, but I did last six rounds before dieing. This is a fun game to play. This game has the potential to become a gaming night staple.

The final game of the evening was Zombie Dice. A great push your luck dice game. I bet my fellow dice masters players wished I rolled like I do playing Zombie Dice. All my luck seems to happen in Dice masters. It's safe to assume I didn't come close to winning either of the two games we played.

The great thing about our group. Wow are we a group now? This is our second games night now. Do we qualify as a group? How many games nights do you have to have to qualify as a group? The great thing about last night is that we all have a similar sense of humour, love the banter, and able to take it all in good humour. A big theme of the evenings banter was whether James was a hipster. To be fair it was funny, and his denials and heated protests added to the laughs. It didn't help his case admitting he had been using beard oils recently, nor when googled that the first image of a bearded hipster with a flat cap looked like his twin!

You know me I will work lego minifigs into anything. This morning I have found the bits to make a hipster minifig of James as a present for him next time. It has to be done. When all the bits come together I hope they live up to the plan I have in my head. I think it will be better. We will see in a couple weeks time.

Anyway a fantastic evening once more, great company, fun games, awesome banter/conversation.

 

Minifig Saturday and I’m a winner

lego minifigs, star realms

Minifig Saturday it is then. There is gaming stuff going on I can assure you. Yesterday Games Quest had a Star Realms competition where if you beat them playing the game using the app and posted a screen shot of the win, they would send you the Crisis expansion pack of your choice. I won my game and couldn't decide which to have so I asked them to choose at random for me. So a surprise prize is on its way. We played a second game that I lost. So I'm going to challenge them to a third game as a decider.

I think it's well known by now how I get forgetful over stuff ordered. I'm pretty sure I ordered the set of Crisis expansions but for the life of me can't remember who from! I might order an extra set just incase my mind is playing tricks on me. Which it often does. If I end up with two complete Crisis expansion sets, I guess we will have a first for the reborn blog a competition. (Yes years ago we had competitions but that was as the old blog not the new!)

Yesterday I was meant to be teaching and playing Star Realms with a friend, but serendipity meant instead I ended up chilling out with friends, chewing the fat over, righting wrongs. We ended up in the local Burger King, where the service was soooo slow. And it took them three attempts to get my friends burger correct! The compensation burger they gave my friend was awesome. Another friend had the Taco ranch burger and that was the sorriest burger I have ever seen at Burger King. It was more a kids burger or entree, it was so tiny for the money. I would of felt robbed and my friend who ordered it did. Anyway this is a point to this little tale (thank god I hear you say), we have arranged a gaming night round mine for tonight. So expect a write up about that tomorrow.

Well as the diptic photo below shows a Bane (movie version) minifig has arrived. I bought a trench coat for it too separately which will arrive Monday I think. That will finish the Bane minifig off nicely. The other figure turned up too which is Tonto with an open fire. I wanted the fire for camping vignettes I have planned. The Tonto figure was a very nice bonus. I like the figure a lot, and having The Lone Ranger and Tonto is really cool. The look of Tonto in the more recent Lone Ranger movie was one of the things I loved. I know Depp and the Director based the look of Tonto on a famous painting of an Native American. Having done a quick google I'm seeing results that are declaring the painting and Depps depiction of Tonto as racist. This isn't something I have spent time thinking about, and hadn't occurred to me. I'd like to discuss this with an Native American, I really don't know enough about this subject and if this is a racist depiction. I would not be surprised if it was. What I do know is I don't know what an accurate depiction would be.

I don't want to use ignorance as an excuse and I won't, I'd rather I have the facts and make an educated and informed decision.

I do enjoy using the motivational poster app on the iPad to produce these posters of the minifigs. Especially when I am using quotes from that the character said in the movie.

Well yesterday was Friday the 13th, so a photo like the one below had to be done. It's the Jason Vorhees minifig with Friday the 13th Part 4 playing in the background on the tv.

Let me know what you think about this post in the comments below. I do moderate comments before putting them live. Just to catch spam and offensive comments. Otherwise even if you disagree with me the comment will appear.

 

Impulse minifig purchase!

lego minifigs

So an afternoon with friends ended with arranging a games night for tomorrow, and me having given in to buying the odd minifig packet from WH Smiths. There is always that temptation whenever I am in the town centre during shop opening times. I'm a weak weak person that's all I will say in my defense.

So what did I pull?

As the photos show I got the Goth girl, a carpenter, and fencer. All three are pretty cool, but my favourite has to be the goth girl and the goth teddy bear.

Ok I admit it I need an intervention.

 

Lego Minifig Arrivals 13 Feb

lego minifigs

Wow I've just realised what today's date is and what arrived today. The first picture gives it away. However Michael Myers and Jason Vorhees arrived today from Minifig.me. These are two custom minifigs that they sell of the popular horror movie “stars”. I wasn't expecting these two figures for another couple of weeks because they warn you that there is a 2-3 week turn around on these types of figures because they are made to order. It's apt that they arrived today because it's Friday the 13th, and Jason is the star/pyscho of that movie franchise. Well guess what I'm watching later to celebrate the date. I think Minifig.me have done a great job with these figures. I didn't see any point in trying to create my own for them. Although for Jason I think a detachable ice hockey mask would improve it. But I still really like what they have done just using decals.

Also the above photo shows the “not a robot” sheriff from The Lego movie, sporting that amazing Tombstone tash that I like, plus a generic cowboy/bandit. These will be used when playing Bang the Dice Game.

I also got from Minfig.me some accessories and parts to complete my own custom figures, and bits to be used in the sets or I believe in the lego community they are called vignettes. So as the photo below shows I have now completed the lecturer minifig of me complete with coffee mug and pen. To the blogger minifig of me I've added the satchel and camera.

Finally I was able to complete the backpacker. Now I know Lego do a backpacker in one of the sets, but the upper torso of that was plain if I remember correctly. And this one from Minifig.me was way better, plus the head was not bearded on the official one. I do like how mine has come together.

Finally I just wanted to show the delightful little “matchbook” style boxes that Jason and Michael came in from Minifig.me

I must start work on making the vignettes next, but I do have one or two custom figures I want to make as gifts. I will have to see how the mood takes me and in what direction!

 

New Arrivals New Arrivals – mid Feb 15

dice masters, lego minifigs, new arrivals, star realms

I'm starting this new arrivals post with Lego minifigs. I'm still awaiting for some parts to arrive from France, but in the meantime I managed to get a Lone Ranger minifig and also the Lego City Polar Accessory Kit. I got this mainly for its accessories. I wanted a tent, and the stove, the mugs and axes are a bonus. But there is also what looks like a lolly which is a little hand trowel. These accessories will help me in my backpacking scene I will be creating.

Next in is some Dicemasters stuff. Top photo shows the three cards from the Days of Future Past OP kit. I had bought the first OP kit as well, however that seems to have been lost by the courier, and I got a refund. So now need to source another copy of that.

The bottom half shows off the final nine cards that I needed to complete the Avengers vs X-Men Dicemasters. So I'm happy about that. My set does not include the alt art cards, that's a silly root for me to take as the Tsarina alt art card is going for silly money.
Next month get the final cards to complete the Uncanny X-Men set.
Finally on the Dicemasters front the Yu-gi-oh! Starter set also arrived. I think I need nineteen cards to finish off this set after getting the starter and a gravity feed. So that isn't bad. The cards are either rare or ultra rare.
Also arriving are the cards from the two tournament kits that Star Realms had last Summer. Star Realms is one of my favourite games at the moment. Obviously there are spares which I'll be giving away. I'm going to need to get another base game. Then I can have a copy of the base game to teach new players with, and a copy of the game with the expansions added to play with experienced players. I still need to find a copy of the Gambit expansion, and I haven't seen anyone advertising the storage box yet.

Finally I have for some reason two copies of the Blackmailer promo card for Cash 'n Guns 2. Could of sworn I only clicked it once! And also with that came the Kickstarter Deluxe Content for Tiny Epic Kingdoms. This adds three new factions and the exploration expansion.

So that's the new arrivals wrapped up. Some cool stuff I think. I'm going to leave this post with something I shared on Instagram/Twitter/Facebook yesterday, I hope you like it.

 

Saturday Lego

lego minifigs

On a visit to WH Smiths this morning I crumbled and bought two packets of series 12 and three packets of series 13 minifigs along with my usual monthly magazine purchases.

So what did I pull?

Well as the photo above shows I got the rock star and gamer from series 12. I'm really happy with this, even though I have the gamer already. Usually I put duplicates into my spares tin. But the gamer won't be doing that he'll be going to Nath if he wants him. It's a shame they didn't do a female gamer too. A bit of gender balance would be nice.

From series 13 I got a rather cool warlock/evil wizard figure. An ancient Egyptian soldier/guard, and an old west sheriff complete with Kurt Russell Tombstone bushy moustache. I love this figure. Only the other day while writing the post about the firefighters arriving and Flash Point, I was thinking and trying to resist the urge of getting Cowboys for use with Bang the Dice Game. Then today I pull the sheriff and that resistance is starting to crumble. Although all the Cowboys will have to have those big bushy moustaches like those in the movie Tombstone.

Regular readers or as I like to call them “people with nothing better to do” will know I recently got two books on making customised minifigs. The company that printed these books also print a magazine about Lego too called Blocks. There are one or two adds for it in the books. I never gave it another thought. Then today while in Smiths browsing the magazine shelfs I saw the current issue sitting there hidden in the modelling section.
I'd already browsed an official Lego magazine book about Lego. But that looked just like a light fluffy expensive advert, with the odd nugget of information thrown in. So yeah I'll get it soon! I was already in the frame of mind for picking up something to read on Lego. When I saw Blocks on the shelf, I picked it up, had a flick through, and thought why not? The cover hadn't even registered with me until I got home. Which made it an even bigger win for me.
So now I have a relaxed Saturday afternoon ahead of involving coffee, cake and reading about Lego.

 

The Completed Hacktivist

lego minifigs
So the next instalment of minifig accessories arrived today. As you can see the hoodie torso was one of the items.
I swapped over the torso, and thought what the heck let's see what the hacktivist looks like with the baseball cap. Blow me down it looked really good. So as far as I'm concerned my hacktivist minifig is complete. I really like the way that it's turned out.

I do really like the anonymous head and very tempted to add to the list of future projects a V minifig from the V for Vendetta book/movie.

There is one more minifig accessory instalment to come, but that's coming from France I think. That will enable me to finish of the lecturer minifig and make the backpacker minifig.

I do hope that seeing how easy it is to put together a custom minifig that you will think “I can do that” and create your own custom minifigs. My project was to create ones that represent aspects of myself, stuff that represents me whether it's hobbies or work. I've created custom figures, and used official figures. I think it says a lot about me that I've included Darth Vader and The Joker as aspects of myself. What it says I don't know I'm not that self aware! I'll leave that for those with more insight to decide.

 

Early ideas for hacktivist and lecturer minifigs

lego minifigs

Using the bits that arrived earlier I've knocked together quick ideas for the hacktivist and the lecturer.

The lecturer torso and legs will stay, but at the moment I'm using a spare Thor head, which will be replaced with a head similar to the one I use on the blogger I made. So still bearded but a different expression on the face, not as fierce.

The hacktivist will change, I'll keep the head (of course) and the legs. But the torso will change, I'll use a hoodie torso when it arrives. The courier bag/satchel will also stay, and I'll add a laptop as an accessor. Not sure about the bandana for the hat, will replace that too. I like the beanie hat I use on the blogger also for the hacktivist. Luckily I think I have another one on the way.

So as you can see it's very easy to create a custom minifig (well if there are the bits available). These are a work in progress, notes, exploring ideas before finalising.

 

New Arrivals new arrivals (5/2)

dice masters, ghost stories, lego minifigs, new arrivals

Going to start off this post with some lego stuff and then finish with a game related bit.

First up some minifig bits that will make be parts in making my three planned figures. Plus the little contamination container for the scientists. There are still some more bits to come, more legs torsos, and accessories. But they are coming from a different company. I am really happy with the anonymous head to use for the hacktivist.

I had a little issue getting this next item. Ordered at the same time as the other bits from Amazon, but sent separately via Royal Mail. Didn’t arrive next day ( thanks Amazon for the extra month of Prime membership, pays to complain ). The book still hadn’t arrived yesterday so back on to Amazon who resent the book! Which turned up today.
Finally I found a site (Belgian!) that sells promos for the game Ghost Stories, ok truth be told I wasn’t actively looking for promos for this game I stumbled upon it, as you do. So as part of a small promo splurge this month I ordered the promos they had. The Ma-Cho promo is for an expansion I don’t have (yet) but thought I’d get now while I could. The others add more cards/tiles to the base game. I’ll be looking at these in more indepth at a later date.

So there you have it today’s new arrivals. More still to come, but I’m not going to spoil the surprise as to what they are. Knowing what was released last week I think some of you may be able to make an educated guess to one or two of the items.

UPDATE

Well lunchtime saw another delivery. The Yu-Gi-Uh Dice Masters Gravity Feed arrived. Ninety packs, one hundred and eighty cards and dice. Two rare cards ^__^ So as you can guess I’ve had a funtime opening all those packs.