Monday 30 May 2016

Vampifan's Views 79 - Monthly Musings 54

Haven't I seen her before?
Another month and another Joe Jusko painting of Vampirella to start my Monthly Musings post. Those of you with good memories may recognise this painting. This is the image used on my life-sized cardboard cut-out of Vampirella that I showed last year. See here.
Of course, with this painting you get to see the complete picture. This is one of my favourite Joe Jusko paintings. It also appears on my 2016 Vampirella calendar that I have hanging next to my computer.

In my hobby news I have got back into Heroclix and Horrorclix in a big way. I played these games a hell of a lot in the early 2000's when they first came out and I collected hundreds of figures for them. When my gaming group broke up, I put them all back on the shelves and pretty much forgot about them. Earlier this month, Steve and Hil, my fellow editors of the All Things Dungeon Crawl blog asked if I had any spare Heroclix or Horrorclix figures lying around as they fancied getting back into both games - Steve with Heroclix and Hil with Horrorclix? Imagine their surprise when I told them that I had loads of figures spare and they could have them all. Hell, they were no good to me; they were just gathering dust. They wanted them, so they got them and now they have a very impressive collection of clix figures for both games. As a result of their enthusiasm I have rediscovered my own love of both games, Now I'm playing solo games and actively looking for new figures. I bought a few new starter sets this month - Captain America: Civil War, Fantastic Four and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, partly for the new figures but also for the rules, as I wanted to know how much the 2016 rules had changed from the original 2002 rules that I was so familiar with. The answer to my surprise, was surprisingly little. A few tweaks here and a few additions there but essentially, they were exactly the same. This was good. The game was just as I remembered, so I had no problem in getting back into it.

When it comes to collecting Heroclix figures or any other kind of clix figures there are basically two schools of thought - keep the figures intact on their bases or remove the figures from their bases to rebase and use in other games. What kind of collector am I? The answer is both. I do cut figures from their clix bases but only if the figure is a swap. Any clix figure that I only have one of, remains a clix figure. This means that I have very few rare, unique and limited edition figures that are rebased because they are much harder to come by. As far as the clix games go I have a massive collection of Marvel, DC and Indy superheroes and villains and almost as many figures for Horrorclix and its three expansion sets. I may do some figure reviews of figures from my collection in the future but I'll leave any other Heroclix/Horrorclix articles or batreps to Steve and Hil to publish on the ATDC blog. You can see the first of their Heroclix/Horrorclix posts here - http://thegamerscupbard.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/by-hilary-gilbert-may-2016-thefirst.html
Note the new address!

Other than those three Heroclix sets I mentioned I haven't bought anything else hobby-related this month. On my painting table at the moment are a batch of Zombicide: Black Plague zombies. I only have a few left to paint to finish them all. I am hoping I can get them all finished before I receive my huge parcel of Black Plague expansion sets, which are due very soon. You can expect a lot of Black Plague posts appearing on my blog over the next few months.

My other hobby news is that I am just starting work on Jez/Carrion Crow's Forgotten Heroes project, which is due to launch in June. I'll have a few figures to show for that, so keep an eye open for my entries next month. As for what's coming next on the Vampifan blog, fans of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles should rejoice. I have my TMNT allies and villains to review.

20 comments:

  1. Yes, YEs, YES!!! TMNT at last! Sooooooo looking forward to this month! ++gets gently led to a quiet room++

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    1. You won't have long to wait, Andy. My next post will feature my Greebo Games figures for the Turtles.

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  2. Well you know me I do have opinions! Scooby do (Thumbs up) Scrappy do (thumbs down) Starwars episodes 4-6 (Big thumbs up, while Episodes 1-3 Mostly just about up, BUT JAJA Binks BIG thumbs down.

    So TMNH thumbs Up. (But TMhT thumbs down....when TV companies try to sanitise things!) So I am looking forward to seeing these take shape.

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    1. Oh and Bryan Scott Thumbs up!

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    2. Many thanks, Clint and I totally agree with your views on Star Wars, Scooby Doo and TMNT.

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  3. Delighted to see you enjoying "Heroclix" again Bryan, and to see some "TMNT" action on the clicky-base menu too. Strangely I've also been bitten by the hero-in-a-half-shell bug but courtesy of "Dicemasters"; an incredibly addictive dice collecting game which I thoroughly recommend to anyone who has an interest in Super-Heroes, D&D or Turtles - or all three :-)

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    1. Thanks, Simon. Knowing absolutely nothing about "Dicemasters" I'm now going to Google it.

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    2. I have been watching some play through videos of "Dicemasters" on YouTube and I'm afraid it's not for me. I can see the attraction of it but it just doesn't float my boat as much as Heroclix does. Getting back into Heroclix is costing me money and I do not want to start spending on a totally new game when I have so many games already. Sorry, Simon, but I'll be staying clear of it. No doubt I will enjoy your posts on it as I'm sure they'll be written with your usual unique style and passion.

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    3. I totally understand Bryan, as there isn't a mini in sight for the game... Unless of course you plan to adapt the rules in order to do so ;-)

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    4. I don't mind that there are no minis with this game, Simon. My reluctance to start collecting it is based purely on financial reasons. Now that I'm back into playing Heroclix again I'd much rather spend my cash in filling in a few gaps from my collection of heroes and villains.

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    5. Ah, well in that case, the next time I see a starter set going cheap I'll pop it in the post for you my friend, and see if I can lure you to the dice side of the Force ;-)

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    6. You are far too kind, my friend!

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  4. As I'm sending you a parcel this week anyway, this will also include a Rookie Dr Doom from the Clobberin' Time expansion, which is a Rare (I know, because I looked it up!). As I have a variety of Dooms already, I thought he might like to add him to your collection. The other item in the parcel will have an explanatory letter. ;-)

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    1. Wow! That sounds awesome, Jez. I can't wait to see what else is in the parcel. Thank you so much!

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  5. Great, GREAT post Bryan. Seems the world has gone Mutant Turtle mad.... well time maybe to announce that I TOO have been hit by the `hero-in-a -half-shell` bug as well (omg, I don’t believe I just said that half shell quote, I`m truly losing it) and there will indeed be quite a lot of these bug guys in our new Clix campaign games v-e-r-y sooooooon!!!! Your post here just makes it harder to resist going all turtle-y right now.... but “patience young Padawan” Hil and I aren`t ready yet to introduce this dark element into the game hehe.

    Really nice post Bryan, it got me all inspired and into Clix ALL over again.

    Youu and me both, collecting and picking off those special much needed special characters, they really do enhance the game so much don’t they. And playing with the heroes and villains we most relate to makes the experience a real skirmish level, thematic movie fest of goodness .

    Hils is a little under the weather this week or she`d have replied to this post for sure.

    Hell, I`m all inspired now lol.

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    1. Well, it is all down to you and Hil that my love of Heroclix and Horrorclix has resurfaced, so THANK YOU! There are going to be a lot of superhero related posts on my blog in June but nothing that interferes with or repeats what you're doing on the ATDC blog. I have been making a list of characters I especially want and fortunately for me, most are relatively cheap (around about the £5 mark). I'll pick up what I can next month. It is always nice to be able to own and field your favourites.

      Finally, give my best wishes and regards to Hil. I hope she gets well soon. I'm very much looking forward to your next article on the ATDC blog. Coming soon, folks!

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    2. Thanks Bryan.... this weeks post is actually just now up, but for some reason the type is wonky, so needs tidying up a bit. Pretty please you can work out what I did wrong over at the other site hahaha.

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    3. Sorry, Steve. I have been busy all evening and have only just seen your post. I made a few tweaks to it (title and labels added). You seem to have it all well in hand. I'll add my own comments to it soon.

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  6. Looking forward to seeing proper pictures of the Turtle clix the renders don't do them justice in a good/bad way sometimes.

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    1. I'll post some up for you, Simon. The figures look very good in the flesh and are nice sculpts.

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