Monday 31 October 2016

Vampifan's Views 85 - Monthly Musings 59

As October closes on one of my favourite days of the year - Halloween, I start as usual, with a stunning portrait of Vampirella painted by Joe Jusko. This painting is a particular favourite of mine. I have a small (10" tall) cardboard cut-out of Vampirella based on this particular painting. I bought it years ago and it still stands on one of my bookshelves in my bedroom. This painting shows Vampirella on her home world of Drakulon, where rivers of blood flowed freely. She is reclining in a waterfall of blood, which some may find disturbing... but not me!

I have a lot to say this month, so I'll start by telling you what I have been doing. I have been playing a few practice games of Shadows of Brimstone, as I familiarise myself with the rules before I post my first batrep for the game. I made a few mistakes, which is only to be expected but it is better to catch them early on whilst gaming in private, and I always learn from my mistakes. The games went well, but I quickly discovered you need a lot of table space to play Shadows of Brimstone. This game uses a lot of cards, a lot of counters and the map tiles take up loads of space unless you remove old ones before adding new ones, which is definitely recommended if you are playing on a small or regular sized table. My dining table measures 5' by 3' and it has to be cleared completely for me to play Shadows of Brimstone.

On the painting front, I am continuing to paint figures for my Shadows of Brimstone game and Judge Dredd Miniatures Game, as well as edging furniture and scenery items from my Battle Systems Urban Apocalypse Terrain sets. I have finished painting a lot of figures this month, so progress is good. They will all be featured on my blog in due course.

Speaking of Battle Systems, they have just launched their next Kickstarter campaign, which is Sci-Fi II Terrain. This is a complete overhaul of their original sci-fi terrain sets with the added bonus that it will be fully compatible with the Urban Apocalypse Terrain sets. The guys at Battle Systems learnt a lot from the Urban Apocalypse Terrain project and have vastly improved their very first project, which was the original sci-fi terrain set. I was in on Day One and was fortunate enough to secure an "Early Bird" pledge for two of each of the options. As I write, there are currently two sets you can pledge for. This project was fully funded within 10 minutes, and it is going to be hugely successful.
The Frontier Pledge at £78 per set. This is a gritty, used set, most likely found on fringe worlds, or in my case, Mega City One. This photo shows all that you get from one set, but does not include the many free Add-Ons you'll get for backing the project. Impressive, huh?
The Galactic Pledge, also at £78 per set. This has a much more clean and pristine look to it. I'll be using it for the more well off areas of Mega City One. Once again, the photo shows all that you get for one set. The gaming mat for both sets measures 2 feet square. You can combine both sets if you want or, as I plan on doing, combine them with the Urban Apocalypse sets. The sets can be used to make spaceship interiors or cityscapes. My imagination is working overtime on what I can do with these sets. If you are at all uncertain about backing this project or just want to know more about it click on the following link and be amazed at what is on offer.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1621774283/battle-systemstm-sci-fi-ii-terrain?ref=hero_thanks
There was never any doubt that I'd be backing this project. Primarily, because I was so blown away by their Urban Apocalypse Terrain sets, and second of all, this will really bring my 3D version of Mega City One to life. It is such a shame it won't be released until August 2017. I want it NOW! I know, I must remain patient. Each day I click on the site and see what new stuff has been added, thinking, can it get any better than this? The answer is always YES, IT CAN! As you can tell I am very, very excited about this project.

All of this is great news, but sadly, I also have some bad news as well. Mongoose Games and Warlord Games have lost their current license to sell the 28mm scale figures for the Judge Dredd Miniatures Game. I e-mailed Warlord Games to see what was going on and received the following reply,
Good afternoon Bryan.

Thank you for your message and interest in our models.
As our license on Judge Dredd has almost reached its end, we are currently planning the future for its range and game and re-negotiating our agreements with the brand owners.
Please stay tuned on our website pages and newsletter for imminent news on Judge Dredd developments!
Have a nice weekend! 
The fact that they are re-negotiating gives me some hope that an agreement can be reached and that the line continues. I would hate to see this range go for good. I'm praying for the best but fearing the worst. Warlord Games are currently holding a sale of their JDMG figures with everything half price and with free delivery. But the figures on offer are very limited, with over 95% of their stock apparently being sold out. So what does this mean if you want to buy any 2000AD related figures? Well, the good news is that Wargames Foundry still have their 2000AD range going. Unfortunately, they haven't added to it for years and years and I doubt if they ever will. With Mongoose Games, Warlord Games and the old Indyclix range now defunct, we won't see anything new produced for the game until someone does a deal with Rebellion who hold the licence for 2000AD and its characters. At the moment, eBay would seem to be your best bet to pick up any figures you are missing or would like but sadly, they only have a limited selection to choose from. Personally, I don't mind who picks up the license, just as long as someone does. It would be nice to see the full range available for sale again and even nicer if it develops as new models are added. I am keeping my fingers crossed for a positive outcome.
I came very close to collecting the full range of JDMG figures and I'm only missing a few individual figures (Assassinator Droid, the Electro Cordon Pack, Kenny Who, the Mini-Bots set, Oz Judge on Trike, Sabbat and the Zombie Conversion set) and one boxed set (the Judda). I'd have liked to get a few Assassinator Droids and Zombie Conversion sets but I'm not bothered about missing the others. There are plenty of other robots I own that I can use as proxy Assassinator Droids and I can always use Milliput to convert zombie figures with.
The timing of this is bad because I will be devoting most of the next few months to my JDMG campaign, starting with my next post. I have all the figures I need to make it last a good few years and with the Battle Systems Urban Apocalypse Terrain I have and the Battle Systems Sci-Fi II Terrain coming next year, my batreps will look stunning. The reason I say that the timing of no-one currently holding the licence to sell the JDMG figures is bad is that my posts are likely to inspire a few followers to want to start their own JDMG games. It would be such a shame if someone sees something they'd really like to buy on my blog but can't find it for sale. My good friend and fellow blogger, Simon Moore, aka Blaxkleric has been showcasing his Mega City One Zombies this month and he has attracted a lot of positive comments about the figures and the game. The Judge Dredd franchise still remains very popular and I only hope it will grow stronger.
Yesterday I had a mammoth photography session and I took about 60 photos of figures from my Judge Dredd collection - more than enough to showcase for the rest of this year and beyond. I do like to maintain a library of photos I can use on my blog.

2000AD Prog 2000 Competition Winner
In my last Monthly Musings post I celebrated the publication of prog 2000 of the 2000AD comic with a simple competition. Not many people bothered to enter which was good news for those who did as it increased their odds of winning. However, there could only be one winner and I got my mum to draw a name from a list of entrants I placed in my baseball cap. So, many congratulations to -
Andy Nash aka Da Gobbo. 
You win a box full of 2000AD themed 28mm scale figures. I'm sure you will treasure them and hopefully use them in your own games, although probably not in Bushido! I'll get them posted to you as soon as possible, Andy.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

23 comments:

  1. WHOOP WHOOP!!! You're darn tooting I'll treasure them and you can be sure they will feature heavily too!! Soooo sooooo excited.

    I was just reading your musings thinking this all sounds good, yep, yep loving it and then got to the bottom paragraph and exploded!

    I was umming and ahhing over buying up some PDFs of the Mongoose range of JD RPGs as it they are flogging them dirt cheap, looks like I'm gonna have to now :-) :-) :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well someone had to win, Andy, and really it is my mum you should be thanking for drawing your name out of the cap. I'm glad you can find a use for them all and I very much look forward to seeing what you do with them. Once again, well done, mate!

      Delete
    2. Thanks Bryan's mum! Appreciate your adept name picking ;-)

      Delete
  2. I think I have a pack of the zombie conversion bits and some electro cordons kicking around somewhere if you are interested?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Very much so, Paul. You can contact me at vampifan@talktalk.net and let me know how much you want for them.

      Delete
    2. Sorry, missed this comment earlier. I'll dig out the bits over the weekend and let you know what I have kicking around.

      Delete
  3. A magnificent posting Bryan, and one which ordinarily would warm the very cockle of my heart. Sadly however 'Mongoose Matt' has put something of a dampener on things with his latest update for the "Judge Dredd" kickstarter. Apparently I am still going to get my remaining pledge minis but post 25tn Nov "Mongoose Publishing" are destroying their moulds and distributing their greens/masters to the higher end KS backers. I'm not what this will mean for the "Judge Dredd" game but presumably whoever buys it will be starting from scratch!?!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well this is bad news, Simon and a real kick in the teeth to everyone who has bought a JDMG figure from Mongoose. Once again, Mongoose Matt proves he can't be trusted to hold a licence for an IP.

      Delete
    2. I am somewhat in awe of a company who has literally just spent a couple of years designing a set of ABC Warrior sculpts, and is then prepared to destroy them after only just releasing them for sale!?! That makes no sense to me whatsoever... Thank goodness I bought the Brit-Cit Judges Boxed Set as soon as it came out!!

      Delete
    3. Not only the ABC Warriors, Simon, but also the Ape Gang on Motorbikes (although they might be Warlord Games exclusives). I bought my sets as soon as they were released and thank God I did. For me, it is most fortuitous that I have been buying so many JDMG figures these past few months otherwise I'd have missed out on a lot more than just a mere few figures.

      Delete
    4. I've just spanked £30 on the Mongoose RPGs and a shed load of supplements and campaign gear for Dredd b4 they disappear for good from drivethru.com, who have reduced the price down by about 75%. I already have the miniatures game rule book, so hopefully I'm good for a bit until someone picks up the miniatures license again.

      Delete
    5. Money well spent in my humble opinion, Andy. You've nabbed a great deal there.

      Delete
  4. its kinda like I warned (a few times now), this was something to buy when you saw it, as it was going to be a non starter for anyone who delayed. I had inside information on this so couldn't speak more plainly than I did, for fear of... um breaking pro etiquette. That's why I pushed you soooo hard to get the lot Bryan.

    It sucks know. Probably why have very little faith in the market as a whole.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You did, Steve, and thankfully, I listened. Of the few I'm missing, it's no big deal. I managed to get everything I wanted. Good news for me but it is all the other fans I feel sorry for.

      Delete
  5. good news for eBay sellers though I guess. Those who saw it coming who bought up the surplice will make a mint and a real killing... grrrrrrr eBay.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have been buying a few figures I was missing from the JD range from eBay sellers and the prices have been cheaper than the prices offered by Mongoose Games and Warlord Games on their webstores. I have actually come out on top, which doesn't happen often on eBay. Smiles smugly! :-)

      Delete
  6. My cynical side says that the Judge Dredd stuff is gone for good, but what do I know? For your sake (and everyone else who is interested in the range), I'll hope for the best.

    Perhaps this is just Fate's way of telling you to do more ATZ :-) ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Who knows what the future will bring, Hugh? After what Simon has told me it doesn't look good.

      Oh, I do plan on doing more ATZ but not until next year.

      Delete
  7. Nice post Bryan, with some good and bad news, good to see Gobbo Andy taking the prize, I'm sure he'll do the miniatures justice (no pun intended, but I'll take it anyway!).

    Shame about Warlord I would have got some of the ABC's, but I guess I've lived this long without them, I'll live a little longer. Nice Vampi pic by the way, have you seen this one of scream queen "Brinke (of destruction) Stevens", as her....

    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tn9FYcq015s/TY9HkQMuBfI/AAAAAAAALPA/mb2j7Bf8WvE/s1600/tumblr_kq7cxtlUeR1qzun0bo1_500.jpg

    Cheers Roger.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Roger. I agree that Andy will do the figures justice. The ABC Warriors were on sale for a ridiculously short time. Unforgivable, really!

      I hadn't seen that photo of Brinke before. It's been added to my Vampirella pictures folder. Thanks for sharing!

      Delete
    2. Glad I found one you hadn't got.

      Cheers Roger.

      Delete
    3. It was very much appreciated, Roger.

      Delete