TSR 5603 Ogre And Cyclopskin Miniatures

  The mailman delivered this today, so I thought a little product review was in order.  You can still get these blister packs on eBay relatively cheap.  I wanted an ogre for an upcoming gaming session, so this was my choice.  The models are decent, with several nice touches.  The cyclopskin has some holes in his jerkin, a spike on the club (metal or bone), and a 70's mullet hairdo (just back from the disco?).  The ogre is nicely detailed as well, with a necklace featuring three skulls,  and metal shin guards (hurts when you run into them little halflings!).

  The ogre has a much better stance than the clyclopskin, who looks like he's posing for his high school yearbook photo (captain of the golf team, voted most likely to pillage).  The mold likes are fairly obvious in some spots, although that's a fairly common fault on miniatures.  I don't have a close FLGS (friendly local gaming shop), so it's nice to be able to find things like this on eBay  for $7.19 (FREE shipping!).  I'd say worth the price especially since you get both figures.

Four of Five Overall

How Not To Brainstorm For Ideas

  I was going to look online for some ideas on running a Star Frontiers adventure, and I came across some links to Star Trek: Voyager.  That's when I remembered that Voyager was the premiere series on UPN.

Guess they couldn't decide on one shape, so they used three?

  Whatever happened to UPN anyways?  Well, since I was surfing teh interwebs anyways, a quick google search later had my answer.  They merged with the WB network to form the CW network.  Turns out that one of my favorite stations in Cleveland, Ohio, WUAB 43, was once a UPN station.  Of course I had to google Channel 43.

  Once an independent station with their own local flavor, shows like Big Chuck and Little John, the Prize Movie with John Lanigan, and of course Superhost!

Superhost!

  Now, a trip to YouTube for some Superhost video nostalgia, and lo and behold, there in the related videos was a commercial for Zayre's department stores.  I hadn't thought of Zayre's in forever, it was a competitor to Kmart in Cleveland (we had no Wal-Mart in Cleveland in the 70's).  The most striking memory of Zayre's is, of course, their huge neon signs over the store, the name ZAYRE proudly lighting the darkness.  As a little kid, those signs made a huge impression on me, and anytime I see that style of typeface anywhere I remember Zayre's.

Those letters are taller than the cars!

 Eventually I might get to some ideas for Star Frontiers tonight, maybe.

Product Review : Chessex Pound-O-Dice

  One of the Christmas gifts I received was Chessex's Pound-O-Dice.

"There are approximately 100 factory-second dice in this bag.(Number of dice will vary with the mix- four-siders are lighter than other shapes, for example.) These dice are mixed in a variety of styles & colors. Every bag does not necessarily have every style & color. Sizes may include 6, 8, 10, 12, 20 & 30-sided dice (and, possibly, other sizes) in colors that include (but are not limited to) speckled, marble, rainbow, opaque and translucent. This assortment features one complete 7-die polyhedral set of never-released speckled dice, available ONLY in the Pound O' Dice assortment."


  My totals were as follows...
d4: 1   d6: 14  d6 Pipped: 27  d8: 4  d10: 20  d%: 7  d12: 6 d20: 16
A little disappointed that I only received one d4, meaning that in all I can only make two complete sets of dice.  No dice were misshaped or had defects that would make them useless.  The colors varied greatly, some downright ugly, IMHO.  Here's a picture of the actual dice.

  With a price tag of $18.98, it's a real bargain if you need more dice, but don't expect to get several complete sets of dice, or you may be disappointed.  

  Available at Amazon.com.

Four of Five Overall

Is It An Ad, Or A Module?

  During the mid to late 80's Isuzu ads looked like this.  I just realized today that they look an awful lot like old D&D modules!  Maybe someone at Isuzu's ad agency was a D&D player?

Moto-Art #1

  I don't know where I got this series of images, they've been on my hard drive since sometime in 2003.  They're all Honda products, and each one seems to tell a mini-story.  This one is, I believe, an S800, the inspiration for the modern S2000.

  The picture is so evocative, creating the story of a perfect day.  Driving to the coast with the top down, the feel of the warm summer breeze, the sounds and aromas of the sea.  Sitting on the end of the dock as the waves endlessly roll by.

  It makes me want to go for a drive right now, especially in a convertible!

2011 Goals

  It's time to set some goals for 2011, things that I want to accomplish in the new year.  Here's my list of twenty, we'll see how well they fare through the year.

1: DM my D&D campaign every other week.
  It's been a long time since I've regularly run a campaign.  Twenty six sessions over the year shouldn't be too hard to accomplish, I hope.

2: Run a Boot Hill adventure a couple of times.
  I've only played Boot Hill a few times over the years.  I think it would make an excellent alternate for the times we don't play D&D, something to mix things up a little.

3: Run a Gamma World adventure a few times.
  Same as above.

4: Run a Star Frontiers campaign.
  This would not be an alternative to the regular D&D campaign, but something a bit more involved.  I think it's a setting I could get my nephew interested in.  We'll see.

5: Go to a gaming convention.
  Something that I have not done in ages.  There's one or two near Nashville.

6: Post on C3 daily.
  That would be 365 posts for the year, a challenge for sure.

7: Repair the Suzuki GS250.
  Bought a little Suzuki this year, but she needs a little work to get her safely operational.  Probably happen nearer tospring.

8: Get motorcycle endorsement on driver's license.
  When Ilived in Ohio, I had my motorcycle endorsement.  After i moved to TennesseeI had stopped riding for a while, and when I transferred my DL to a TN one, they didn't transfer the endorsement.  My fault for not noticing at the time, and something that needs correcting.

9: Take a trip to Cedar Point!

10: Take a trip to Kings Island!

11: Take a trip to Holiday World!

12: Take a trip to Six Flags Over Georgia!

13: Take a trip to Beech Bend Park!

14: Take a trip to Alabama Adventure!

15: Take a trip to Lake Winnepesaukah Amusement Park!

16: Fix rust spot on my 1992 Toyota Paseo.
  There' a rust spot on the left rear fender.  It's gotta go!

17: Bring 1979 Mazda RX7 up to safe, running condition.
  She needs some work, and I've been putting it off.

18: Finish "The Villain".
  My project bike, a 1977 Yamaha XS750. More on her later.

19: Finish painting the kitchen.

20: Draw every day.
  I'm so out of practice with sketching, and it's something I enjoy, and need to get back into.


 

Change Is The Only Constant

  This blog goes all the way back to September 1st, 2002.  Back then, it was called MotoBlog, and the topic of discussion was cars and motorcycles.  The title soon changed to Ride, which lasted until I stopped blogging in 2007.  Now I'm calling it C3 : Coasters, Castles, Combustion.  What's the change all about?  Let me explain...

COASTERS: I grew up with an amusement park in my back yard (Geauga Lake Park, in Aurora, Ohio).  Going to amusement parks is something I've been doing as long as I can remember.  I believe leisure activities should be an escape from the realities of life, something to take you away for a little while so you can rest and recharge your batteries, and nothing does that better than a ride on a rollercoaster.  You're not really defying death and destruction, but it sure feels like it.  Let the adrenaline flow, throw your hands up in the air, and enjoy the ride.

CASTLES: A little game called Dungeons & Dragons has been a hobby of mine since 1981.  That means in 2011 I'll of been playing for thirty years.  Yeah, it's geeky, but I never apologize for my passions.

COMBUSTNION: Two wheels or four, there's just magic in the way a great vehicle responds to your touch, cruising down a gnarled stretch of tarmac, you and the machine becoming extensions of each other.  Too many people view their transportation with all the passion of a major appliance.  Cars are so much more, and motorcycles take it to an even further level.  Had a crap day at work?  Climb on your two-wheeled steed, focus on the ride, and everything about the day melds away. 

  Those are the three topics this blog will be about.  Disparate elements, I know, but each on it's own would be too focused for me to maintain a constant stream of posts.  Will anybody care, I don't know?  This is really more a creative outlet for myself than anything else, so it really doesn't matter.  I know I'm going to enjoy it.