Week 47 - Back to the Horde

I'm trying to get back on the wagon just before the year wraps up so I finished some more zombies that were part way done already. And a random gribbly I was using to test some ideas on. Anything to get that tally up to 365!

So that is another 17 models done just 12 more to go and I'm done for the year. I will probably still try to get the rest of the Zombicide zombies done though, just for piece of mind... Or brains...

Day 326
353/326 Painted/Days passed
Goals:
Commission models - 21
TNT models - 22
Finish painting Infinity Morats - 11/11
Paint Xtreme Ada-Lorana - 9/9
Paint all Directorate - 44/44
Finish all of the Dreadball teams and MVPs. - 4/4
Paint all Toxic zombies - 37/37
Paint all Berserk zombies - 37/37
Paint remaining Zombicide zombies - 116/150
Paint all DZC Scourge - 36/79
Build and paint remaining KOW Elves - 68/83
Build and paint a full Malifaux crew - 12/16

Week 46 - Runes.....

That is officially the longest time between painting posts ever. My bad. What have I done in the last 6 weeks you ask? Aside from a bunch of life commitments I've done this:

Just the one model. Man that was a mission. At least this one is done, I have the gargantuan to do next. I've also had another two small models dropped off do do as well.

So yeah, I've managed to go from well ahead to nearly behind in the last few weeks. I'm going to have to spare some time to finish some zombies or I will miss my yearly goal, which would be the first time since I started back in 2013. And this post is early because I'm off to TCOW for the afternoon. Yay priorities!

Day 319
336/319 Painted/Days passed
Goals:
Commission models - 21
TNT models - 21
Finish painting Infinity Morats - 11/11
Paint Xtreme Ada-Lorana - 9/9
Paint all Directorate - 44/44
Finish all of the Dreadball teams and MVPs. - 4/4
Paint all Toxic zombies - 37/37
Paint all Berserk zombies - 37/37
Paint remaining Zombicide zombies - 100/150
Paint all DZC Scourge - 36/79
Build and paint remaining KOW Elves - 68/83
Build and paint a full Malifaux crew - 12/16

Ba-Da-Boom Box

So at Auckland Armageddon it came to my attention that a local company was throwing their hat in to the 'block' arena. I'm not one to shy away from trying something out so gave them a looksie. The company is My Pop Culture and the blocks are called Ba-Da-Boom box. They offer three 'themes;' Gamer, Hero and Mixed for $50 shipped, or a $25 mini version. I picked up a Hero version.

The contents:
Spider-man Pop! vinyl
Riddler beer mug
The Hulk scalers
Iron-man cufflinks
Batman Heroclix blind bag
Superman comic
X-men 2 DVD

A Pop vinyl is always good and spidey is a welcome addition to my shelf. Now I'm not a drinker but I can certainly appreciate a decent piece of glassware. This is a welcome addition as my gaming garage is going to be finished soon and suitably geeky glassware will fit in nicely.

There were some nice small items in the box as well. The Hulk Scaler is nice, I'm not one to wear headphones (mine are wireless) but I have got a little key ring display that he will fit with nicely. The cufflinks are very nice and the Wife is particularly keen on me having some which is a plus. I've already got most of the Batman Heroclix set (I'm missing two rares) so an extra chance to get one of those was great (no such luck though).

Lastly were a couple of almost nostalgia pieces. There is an X-Men 2 DVD and a Superman comic from 2003. Now there is nothing wrong with the DVD except that I already have it, so all good. The comic is pretty weird as it really is old, very good condition and shipped in a bag though. Superman is my least favorite hero so maybe I'm just biased, a batman comic I probably would have loved.

So what is the verdict? I think there is a lot of potential here:

• There is a solid quantity of items
• The items are all good quality
• There was a good mix of toys, apparel and entertainment

I will probably check out the other variations in the coming months. The value of this box came in at about $83 (they claim 'up to $100' value) which is in just the right spot. The items I like are more than the base cost and the box arrived within 4 days of ordering, which are all big positives.

I would recommend checking this out, with xmas coming up in particular. Geeks can be hard to buy for at times and this would really up your odds of getting something they like, without having to be a geek yourself.

Available here. (So you don't have to scroll back up to the link above...)

Arcade Grab Block

As part of signing up for the Arcade block in the last post I had the opportunity to get a half price 'grab block.' These are boxes containing a random assortment of items from recent-ish blocks. I figured I would give this a go and post about it, for those on the fence. Bear in mind that these are only available when you sign up for a new subscription (for the time being) but the new Sci-fi block is out very soon... Which is obviously why I've been checking them out again. This set me back $23 USD, or around $35 NZD.

The contents:
CounterStrike shirt
Evolve Pop!
Portal 2 magnets
Street Fighter key chain
Blue Shell on Board sign
Sonic comic

The shirt is from Shirtpunch but is quite soft, which is good. The print is reasonable and I have nothing against more grey for my wardrobe.

A Pop! vinyl is always welcome, I've not played Evolve but the concept sounds pretty cool. This adds to my set nicely but I'm probably not going to add the others any time soon. Too many other cool options on the list first!

Now for the rest, the portal magnets are cool and look to be reasonable quality. The street fighter key chain lights up and plays the hadoken sound bite. This is pretty cool, hopefully it will survive regular use. The comic will prove to be a nice read I'm sure but I have no idea what I'm going to do with the blue shell sign...

As far as pseudo-random packs are concerned this one turned out pretty well. Between the Pop and the shirt I've not lost any investment and I only got one item of little to no use. Given the reduced price I'm pretty happy all up.

Value: The shirt and Pop cover the costs, everything else is a nice bonus.

Get your own here.

October Arcade Block

The October Arcade block just came through and cost me $33 USD, or about $50 NZD. I got a bit sucked back in with all the Fallout 4 hype, I've already stopped the subscription as the next set of spoilers don't really interest me.

The contents:

Call of Duty Black Ops 3 shirt

Atari cap

Fallout Funko blind box figure

Titanfall K'nex set

Retro City Rampage computer game

The shirt is the usual fare from Shirtpunch, it feels a little rough but the print is actually pretty cool, which can be a bit hit-and-miss from these boxes. I'm happy with this one.

Next up is the Atari cap. I'm not much of a hat person but it is reasonable quality and has both print (the rainbow stripes) and embroidery (Atari logo) so with summer upon us I'm just as likely to wear it as any other hat.

This box also came with a Funko Fallout blind box figure and a K'nex Titanfall set. Luckily for me I got one of the figures I wanted out of the blind box. I hadn't looked too closely at that set as there are quite a few 'odd' figures in there. The K'nex set is interesting, it didn't take long to do and it all seems to be made of thinner stuff than the normal sets. This isn't something I would usually get for myself (I prefer Lego) but it was nice to see what else is out there. I'm not going to get more though.

Lastly the block came with Retro City Rampage DX. I've not had a chance to load it up yet but it looks like it will be a nice little time waster. It comes in a old style box, with an old floppy disk style CD cover but has a download code as well. Solid effort all up.

So I've had a couple Arcade blocks in the past that weren't so great. This one is certainly a step up from those, all of the items are real, solid, pieces unlike some of the paper heavy ones in the past. If Nerd block keep this up I may be back on a more permanent basis.

Value: There are 5 items in this block and they are all worth at least $10 each so there isn't anything lost. No complaints from me, I'm content with this one.

Get your own here.