Sunday 19 April 2015

Week 16 - Another Miracle Kickstarter Shipment

Another week gone, another commission complete. This was for a different client so hopefully there will be some more repeat business out of this piece. I admit it was kinda fun to finally paint up a Joker figure, I may have to replace him later. I doubt I will ever play the Batman minis game but the figures are quite nice, if a bit pricey and hard to get...


In other news, Robotech RPG Tactics has finally begun shipping to ROW backers. Just a short 7 months after US backers started receiving theirs. I believe this is the longest shipping fulfillment period for a single wave ever... There is still one more wave to go, so all things being equal I can't expect it for another 10 or so months. (They haven't even started tooling yet.) Expect a review of the models sometime soon. Don't expect a review of the game play for a while, I'm not expecting them to hit the table for quite some time.

Day 109
165/109 Painted/Days passed
Goals:
Commission models - 10
Finish painting Infinity Morats - 11/11
Paint all DZC Scourge - 31/32
Paint all Directorate - 44/44
Build and paint remaining KOW Elves - 68/83
Build and paint all Deadzone Enforcers - 0/34
Build and paint all Deadzone Plague - 0/21
Build and paint a full Malifaux crew - 0/14
Finish all of the Dreadball teams and MVPs. - 0/4

Sunday 12 April 2015

March Loot Review

Another slightly late monthly loot review, this time March. I received a Loot Crate and Classic Nerd Block this time. Here are the costs:

Nerd Block - $19.99US/month + $12.50US shipping = ~$44 NZ
Loot Crate - $13.37US/month + $16.52US shipping = ~$41 NZ

This months Nerd Block Classic:


The shirt is from Shaun of the Dead, a Simon Pegg book, Guardians stacking toy and magnet, Munny blank figure and a prank pack with ice flies and whoopie cushion.

The Loot Crate:


This contained a James Bond shirt, spy themed mad libs, Orphan black comic, a pair of notebooks, Shield lanyard, Spy watch, Paracord bracelet and a digital Ninjak comic. (Plus the usual looter mag and pin.)

The Nerd block contents are okay this month, the shirt is nice enough and I'm not about to say no to another DIY figure. The Guardians stuff is a little low quality though and while I understand the prank gifts tying in with April 1st they are a little bit lame. I'm not likely to read the book any time soon, I'm not one for biographies. It is nice they are doing books more now, but I pick books that I want to read more than I read what others recommend to me, so it probably doesn't suit me very well.

Loot crate has done pretty well again this month. Not pictured above is the box, made to look like a computer console, which provides a web address and clue to a mini-game, involving cryptic questions about items in the box. The completion of the tasks gets you a bonus item in next months crate. A cool idea, I should find out what the bonus item is in the next of couple weeks... The shirt is nice (I wore it last week already) and the paracord bracelet is pretty nifty (it comes with instructions on how to use it for several emergency and survival tasks) and the lanyard is actually very cool if you follow 'Agents of Shield.' The watch is cool as it only displays the time when you touch the front face, otherwise it is black all the time. The Ninjak comic wasn't bad but the Orphan black comic was a bit hard to follow. The notepads are okay and mad libs aren't really my thing.

I really think that the last couple months have really shown the differences between Loot Crate and Nerd Block. Loot Crate is cheaper, contains more and the items are generally of a higher quality. That is just my opinion, obviously, but they seem to have the process fairly well in hand at this stage. The addition of digital items obviously lets them get more value into the box without upping the weight or materials costs so you can get more. The licensed products also tend to be better too. Good job Loot Crate, I'm sticking with you guys a while longer.

I've got the new Marvel crate coming soon in place of Nerd Block, at least until I decide if it is worth the cost (its about $60 every 2 months...)

Nerd Block - April theme is 80s
Loot Crate - April theme is Fantasy

Week 15 - I'm Back (ish)

Well that was a long month! I have quite literally only just completed 2 models this last month. Things have been that busy. Hopefully things will settle down a bit now. I finished up one commission and picked up another single model commission. At some point I might even have some time to work on my own models!


I'm hoping to post about Marches loot soon but have misplaced the photos... Hopefully I wont have to re-take them. - EDIT: Just found them, post coming shortly.

Day 102
164/102 Painted/Days passed
Goals:
Commission models - 9
Finish painting Infinity Morats - 11/11
Paint all DZC Scourge - 31/32
Paint all Directorate - 44/44
Build and paint remaining KOW Elves - 68/83
Build and paint all Deadzone Enforcers - 0/34
Build and paint all Deadzone Plague - 0/21
Build and paint a full Malifaux crew - 0/14
Finish all of the Dreadball teams and MVPs. - 0/4