January Loot Cate

The January Loot Crate theme was "Invasion" and cost $28 USD or about $43. Lets look at what we have.

The contents:
X-files shirt
X-files torch (including batteries)
5th Element Multi-pass
Space Invaders figure
Aliens facehugger plushie
Two retro movie poster prints
Looter pin (unlocks a free digital comic)

The shirt is pretty nice, its a soft material and is officially licensed. Its also just generic enough to wear as I am not very familiar with X-files...

The facehugger plush is pretty nice and includes a rubber band to hold it to your face, should you wish. The multi-pass is a movie prop replica, looks to be reasonable quality. The space invader figure is awesome. I like that Loot Crate are doing pins now, hopefully that stays as they are way nicer than the badges. This pin also unlocks a free digital comic book!

Last up are a pair of art prints based (or replicating, I'm not sure) a pair of old school invasion movies. They are printed on a nice card stock too.

So this was a very solid offering. Now I'm not an X-files fan (I was a bit young for that when it was first out!) but the items are all decent, the paper items are high quality and the bonus digital item was really good. These last two crates have made me reconsider cancelling my subscription, the next one will really help me choose one way or the other. It has also made me realize what I am passing up with the Marvel crates as these last two Loot Crates beat the pants off the Marvel one and cost me about the same.

The next theme hasn't been spoiled just yet, but there will be a shirt in every crate for 2016.

Get your own here and save $3.

December Loot Crate

The December Loot Crate theme was "Galaxy" and cost $28 USD or about $43. I signed back up to take advantage of some extra discounts, lets look at the haul this time.

I lost the boxed photos like in my last post so just the one here too.

The contents:
'Ugly sweater' print shirt
Han Solo Pop! vinyl
Halo tin and game item
Star Wars socks
Galaxy Quest patch
Badge

The shirt is pretty cool, it is nice to have something not tied to a show or game. The socks are awesome and I'm not one to wear anything other than black socks. The Han Solo pop is nice and an exclusive. The Halo tin is okay as is the Galaxy Quest patch.

So this was a pretty good box, lightly holiday themed shirt but otherwise normal. Compared to the Marvel box there just isn't any contest, Loot Crate was way better. The January box should be arriving in the next day or so and the theme is "Invasion."

Get your own here and save $3.

August Loot Crate

The August Loot Crate theme was "Villains 2" and cost $30 USD or about $45 NZD.

The contents this month:
A mug (either Venom or Carnage, I got Venom)
A Breaking Bad apron
A Joker wooden toy
A Hydra pin
and the lootcrate mag and badge

There are just four items in this crate and three of them are fairly large. The first one is the mug. I think this was supposed to be the jewel of the box but unfortunately it is pretty rubbish. It would be very hard to drink out of, the paint job is pretty sloppy and worst of all, its ugly. The wife hates it. I think the best use for it will be as a pencil holder, and only just barely.

Next up is the apron. This is pretty nice, includes some pockets but is a little short. It is nicely made though so will find some use around the house.

Last of the big items is the Joker wooden toy. This is nice but more of a young child toy than a collectible. It does come with an alternate head and can be posed to some extent. It looks like this is a custom paint job not normally available though.

To finish out the box was a Hydra pin, a replica of the ones used in the Winter Soldier movie. This is really nice, something I would buy for myself and the highlight of the box.

So the verdict this month: Meh. The best item was also the smallest. I think the box could have been much better just by changing out the mug. A normal mug with a nice print would have been way better and quite possibly allowed for another small item to be put in the box too. I know of at least a couple people who have dropped their subscriptions after the last two boxes and I am one of them. I may yet return but for now I'm happier spending that money on other things, even just a Pop vinyl, comic and patch would make me happier than the last couple boxes.

Thinking of subscribing yourself? Use this link and you get a discount and I get credit too! Win-win!

July 2015 Loot Crate

The July 2015 Loot Crate theme was "Heroes 2" and cost $29.99 USD. (about $45 with the exchange rate as it is.)

The contents this month:
Q-pop Batman (with exclusive word bubble)
Regrettable Super Heroes book (with exclusive cover)
Batman multi-tool keychain
Brawlhalla download card
Legend of Zelda wristband
Wonder Woman mini poster
Star Trek air freshener
Looter mag and pin

This month is another paper heavy month but it makes up for it with some pretty cool items. The Q-Pop figure is awesome and the box doubles as a building for him to stand on.

The other physical items are the keychain, wristband and air freshener, these are okay items, the keychain is pretty big so probably more something you keep at home. I'm not sure how many people wear just one wristband but it is nice. I have another from a previous block so at least I have two. The air freshener is what it is.

The paper and digital items are pretty cool though. The poster is pretty cool and the Brawlhalla code gets you a character and some skins for it (the game is free too!) The other big item in the crate is the Regrettable Heroes book. This is pretty nice and I look forward to reading it.

So this crate felt kinda similar to the first heroes crate, it missed the mark for me a little bit. I feel like it is too hard to cover heroes from many different genres in one go (Marvel didn't make an appearance at all...) On the other hand the last villains crate was one of my favourites. I'm happy with the crate overall, the major items are all good, it was the minor items that could have been better in my opinion. The value is there from just the book and Batman figure so no real loss.

As I predicted, next months theme is Villains 2. I look forward to it!

Thinking of subscribing yourself? Use this link and you get a discount and I get credit too! Win-win!

June 2015 Loot Crate

First change of the re-defined blog, I'm splitting my loot reviews, for easier searching!

The June 2015 Loot Crate theme was "Cyber" and cost $29.99 USD. (about $45 with the exchange rate as it is.)

Sorry for blurry photo, I didn't realize until after I had opened half the items...

The contents this month:
Optimus Prime / Tron crossover T-shirt
Borderlands mouse mat
Pencil case with glow in the dark circuit design
Terminator Genisys 1/2 scale endoskull
Terminator brain chip necklace
Replicant patch
Battlestar Galactica cylon target sheets (two in a cool envelope)
NerdHQ stickers
Loot Crate badge

This crate had a lot of little items and some paper but balanced it with some cool solid items as well. For anyone questioning the value of these things, the endoskull is available here as a pre-order at $55. I love the shirt, its great. The endoskull and brain chip are pretty cool (the chip is solid metal and really heavy) and I'm sure at some point I will find something perfect to attach my growing pile of patches to. The other stuff I can take or leave, the cylon targets are cool but I don't really know what to do with them. I haven't used a mouse mat in ages as cheap optical mice tend not to like patterned surfaces. But it is cool, maybe I will find somewhere for it.

Value-wise this crate is a good one, between the skull, shirt and chip you are looking at $90 so all up this would be around $100. This is why I keep sticking with Loot Crate, I may not have bought everything for myself but I'm not selling it all off either. All for around the cost of a decent geeky shirt.

July's theme is Heroes 2. But it is already shipping at the time of this post. See the July block review for the next theme! (I suspect villains 2...)

Thinking of subscribing yourself? Use this link and you get a discount and I get credit too! Win-win!

May Loot Review

For Mays loot review I received a Loot Crate and the new Comic Block from Nerd Block. Pricing structures below:

Comic Block - $14US/month + $10US shipping = ~$32 NZ
Loot Crate - $13.37US/month + $16.52US shipping = ~$41 NZ

The Comic Block:

A Simpsons Shirt, Marvel Secret Wars #1, DC Convergence #1, Mythic #1 and a Batman print.

The Loot Crate:

A Power Rangers Shirt, Bravest Warriors comic, Mad mini mag, Avengers car decal, shoe laces and ice tray, Rick and Morty puzzle and team fortress badges. And the usual Loot Crate badge and mag.

This Loot Crate had some great stuff, the wife loves the ice tray, the shirt is cool and I quite liked the badges. I'm not really into Mad magazine and this month the Looter badge had 2 variants, which bugs my collector senses. There is nothing in this one that I wont get use out of which is always good.

The comic block wasn't too bad. The comics were all decent choices and a good read, the DC and Marvel ones are limited edition covers too. The shirt is good, far better than some of the ones in sister blocks past. The Batman print is nice too. The main problem I have with the block is that I'm not sure how well it will hold up over time. There can only be so many first editions available and coming in part way through a story would really bother me. I was also disappointed that the first block contained an unsigned, not numbered print. A random collectible would have made this block perfect. Value-wise this just doesn't compare to the Loot Crate (for just a $9 difference) and I could buy the comics for ~$20, less for digital copies. I've dropped this crate for these reasons.

Loot Crate - June theme is Cyber

April Loot Review

For Aprils loot review I received a Loot Crate and the new Marvel Collector Corps box. Pricing structures below:

Collector Corps - $25US/bi-monthly + $20US shipping = ~$60 NZ
Loot Crate - $13.37US/month + $16.52US shipping = ~$41 NZ

The Collector Corps box:

A Thor vs Ultron shirt, 6" Hulkbuster Pop vinyl, Ultron Dorbs vinyl, Avengers comic and a collector corps badge and patch.

The Loot Crate:

A D&D shirt and bow-tie, Harry Potter bag tag, Game of Thrones magnets and USB (4Gb), Princess Bride playing cards, inflatable crown and badge.

Another good Loot Crate, the USB is particularly cool (shame it is only 4Gb though) and the shirt is nice. I haven't got a bow-tie so may as well have a really geeky one. The wife particularly likes the bag tag and I suspect the crown will go down well with my daughter once she is a little older.

The Collector Corps box definitely came out swinging. There is nothing in the box that I don't like and two figures is a good place to start from. The shirt had 3 other possible variants (each with a different hero) but all had the 'fight night' theme so there aren't any serious issues over one being cooler than the others. There is one gripe though, my Hulkbuster has glue marks in several places and a splotch of blue paint on the front (there isn't even any blue used on this figure...) I've looked through some other comments from people who also got the box and this seems to be rather common. My guess is that things got a bit rushed trying to hit the shipping windows so quality control dropped a bit. I'm still happy though and expect that things will be ironed out for the next box.

I've picked up a sub for the new Comic Block out of Nerd Block so look for a review of that later this month. Or early next month, whatever the case may be!

Loot Crate - May theme is Unite
Collector Corps - June is Ant Man (April is still available right now though!)

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

February Loot Review

This is a review for February's Nerd Block and Loot Crate, here is what they cost:

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 Flash themed, also included is a notepad, Saul Goodman figure, Star Wars comic, 2 packs of Cliccors and 2 packs of cosplay cards.

For Loot Crate:

There is a Hexbug ant, Superfight card game, Paper/Scissors/Rock dice pair, Dice bag, Book, Munny DIY figure, Pacman poster, badge and a Firefly online starship.

I'm going to start with the Loot Crate this time; I squeed a little bit when I opened this one. Seriously, a grown-ass man, ecstatic with glee. I've wanted a Hexbug, the dice are awesome (the box acts as a game too,) and the firefly digital item is cool. I had never considered a DIY figure before but after a mate sent me a request for doing a custom one (he got a crate too this month) I had a quick play and it was really fun.

So, on to Nerd Block. The Saul figure is cool, I've not seen much Breaking Bad though. The Cliccors are ok, but all the stuff I could find online show cars, these are just bracelets. The shirt is just okay, the comic would be great, if I hadn't got the same one in Loot Crate last month (alternate cover and not really Nerd Blocks fault.) The cosplay cards had a lot of potential, if they were done well. The cards are a little cheap and a quick look on Reddit and you will find quite a few people who got two identical packs in their box (randomness is quite important!)

Loot Crate clearly won this month (I Squeed...) but the Nerd Block was okay. With belts needing to be tightened this months array made the decision of which subscription to keep quite easy. I've got quite a few geeky shirts now (some better than others...) so Loot Crate not always having a shirt (and replacing it with cool stuff) tips the scales even further.

I do like Nerd Block, but I think they spread themselves a bit thin with so many different theme options. Their Horror block shirts are generally nicer than any of the others, Classics have some decent collectibles and the Arcade blocks tend to have nice figures. Wrap them all together into one box and I would subscribe for a long time. Drop the bad, keep the good, simple really.

I've still got one more Classic Nerd Block to come, so there will be a final comparison next month.
Nerd Block - March is curated by Simon Pegg.
Loot Crate - March is "Covert" and includes a shirt.

January Loot Reviews

Yeah, its a little late... This is a review of the contents of the January Loot Crate and Nerd Block Classic. I'm going to do a direct comparison this time, we will see about future installments. First up, the cost.

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

Each has 3, 6 or 12 month plans that drop the cost a little bit but only loot crate has subscriber specific discounts (clicking my referral link gets you a discount and me some credit.)

So first up Nerd Block Classic: Theme "A galaxy far, far away"

We have a Dr Who Shirt, Star Trek / Planet of the Apes Comic, Star Wars film cell, Lord of the Rings Elf ears, pen and bookmark, a Grumpy Cat Plush and some toy Darts.

Then we have the Loot Crate: Theme "Rewind"

This contained a Voltron shirt, Star Wars comic, Space Invaders tie, Pixel glasses, Comic notebook, Dr Who cartridge figure and a badge.

So both crates contained shirts and comics (which are always decent items) and easily make up about $30 of their respective values. A film cell equivalent retails at $50 on Mighty Ape including a frame, so it would be fair to say $15 for that, making the pen, bookmark, darts, ears and plushie basically free. A basic Tie will set you back about $15, making the notebook, cartridge figure and glasses free.

So which is better? Well this is the second set of glasses I have had from Loot Crate that I wont be using but the figure and notebook are cool. I quite liked everything on the Nerd Block this month, I could easily use everything in it this time around. I would say they are about tied, possibly with Nerd Block ahead.

You definitely get more stuff in a Nerd Block but Loot Crate has more exclusives. But Nerd Block always has a shirt so if you are wanting to expand your geeky attire that is a good way to go.

Get yours:
Nerd block - February theme is "Exclusives"

Loot Crate - February theme is "Play"

Week 40 - Elven Progress Report #6

I have spent the last two weeks working hard on my Elves, trying to get them done as efficiently as possible. The weather has been a limiting factor in getting spray painting done but I am now down to just 2 Drakons to spray paint. In that time I also managed to paint 60 more elves, leaving me with just the cavalry and bolt throwers to get done. Pictures are below.

No group shot this time as I am part way through the multi-basing process. Unfortunately my original plan of making the bases and removing the circular tabs from the elves feet fell through. It takes far to much time and effort to remove so many, so I am attempting to use builders putty to fill in the spaces. This is also proving challenging. Even painting them will be difficult, I may have to do them in stages. This is why it was so important to have a month or so to get them done!

I've also made a start on my Scourge for DZC. My initial test model has been re-done as I am a little tired of having so many models in dark colour schemes. I am trying for something lighter for a change. They are just a distraction while I wait for spray paint to dry on my elf cavalry though, so will take a while to finish. Basing the infantry will be a challenge, I not used to the much smaller scale when basing. I also picked up some Dust stuff recently, I will add them in to the Wall soon, but that is another 40 models between Allies and Axis. And my Infinity starter arrived this week too...

I caved and picked up the Galaxy Lootcrate. My Nerdblock arrived the following day so I can do a comparison of the two. First up is Lootcrate:

This month came with: A Firefly Mal figure and money, Tribble, Retro Alien figure, Star wars magnet and poster, 3 digital Halo comics, pop rocks and a lootcrate badge. I was quite lucky with the alien figure, the other 4 figure options weren't that great. The tribble is pretty cool and I enjoyed the Halo comics. Next up, the Arcade block:

The arcade block contained: A Legend of Zelda shirt, Tomb Raider Statuette, Pacman pen, Luigi keychain, Gears of war dog tags and a Tetris ice tray. The shirt print is good, I really like the ice tray and the statue is high quality.

So for the comparison, the Lootcrate cost me $51.80 and the Arcade block cost $39.75. I felt that the Galaxy theme of the Lootcrate was good, but expected Star Wars to be represented by more than just a poster and magnet... That being said, the tribble is neat, as is the Mal figure. The wife has already claimed the firefly money too. I would be much less happy with this box if the Alien figure was one of the other options.

The Arcade block was good, even if I just kept the shirt and the tetris tray I got my moneys worth out of it. The biggest issue with Lootcrate in general is having to go through Youshop to get it and the fluctuation in shipping as a result. I think Arcade block wins this time, so I am glad that I am going that way in the future!

Day 278
264/278 Painted/Days passed
264/334 Painted/Bought
Goals:
Build a permanent gaming table.
Build a Kings of War army for playing with.
Complete my entry for the terrain competition.
Build and paint a set of Deadzone battle groups.
Build and paint a full Malifaux crew.
Finish all of the Dreadball teams and MVPs.
Finish painting an Infinity group.
Make some headway on my Warpath fluff.

Week 35 - Elven Progress Report #3

This week was a rather busy one, not in the good way. While things were off to a good start on Monday, (I got some time to paint!) that was also the only opportunity to paint until this evening. As a result I have only painted 8 elves this week. I did however finish assembling all the spearmen, which leaves me with just the bolt throwers, cavalry, drakons and archers to trim and assemble. I had a go at trimming the cavalry this week, it took almost an hour to do just one (blasted restic) so I will do the bolt throwers and drakons first I think.

Assembled but not yet painted.

Painted so far.

This weeks efforts.

I received my latest Lootcrate this week as well, photo below.

This one contained a glow-in-the-dark Groot Pop! figure, Leonardo TMNT figure, TMNT sunglasses, Sonic the hedgehog air freshener, the Flash shoelace lightning bolts, Deadpool magnet and some online download codes for digital items and a Steam game. Overall I'm not super happy with this crate. The Groot is cool, as is the Leo. The glasses aren't any use to me (I wear prescription glasses and don't use contacts) and the lightning bolts aren't great on black workboots. The sonic air freshener is really strong. The free game is kind of cool. Overall I've lost a little on this crate, which is why I decided to cancel my subscription. At least with a guaranteed shirt I knew I was getting my moneys worth, which is why I have swapped to Nerdblocks new Gamer box. Of course within hours of cancelling my Lootcrate they reveal next months crate theme: Galaxy, with an item from each of Firefly, Star Trek and Star Wars. It is another figure based crate too. Nuts. I may have to gift myself one...

Oh and my Relic Knights have shown up! Never thought I would see the day. I will update the Wall of Shame when I have gone through and counted everything.

Day 243
184/243 Painted/Days passed
184/136 Painted/Bought
Goals:
Build a permanent gaming table.
Build a Kings of War army for playing with.
Complete my entry for the terrain competition.
Build and paint a set of Deadzone battle groups.
Build and paint a full Malifaux crew.
Finish all of the Dreadball teams and MVPs.
Finish painting an Infinity group.
Make some headway on my Warpath fluff.

Week 31 - When the Cat is Away...

The mouse gets some painting done! Or something like that... So this week the Wife and Child went out of town on a day trip to help a friend with wedding dress shopping. This left me home alone for most of a day so (since I had some warning) I spent the week building as many Dreadball figures as I could and laying down some undercoats, all in preparation for busting out as many playable quality (dipped) models as I could. (I emptied 5 cans of spray paint this week!) The end result was 34 painted of the 95 I had ready to go. Not as many as I had hoped to do (all 95) but not a bad effort nonetheless. Unfortunately I had four more ready to go but the dip caused the spray undercoat to melt on the first two... So now I have to strip them back. Anyway, an overview photo is below, close-ups to follow when they are fully dry.

This makes me feel a lot more comfortable about finishing the Dreadball stuff off by years end. I have since then got another 22 ready to dip, I just want to get the last 9 models assembled and the remainder painted to go with them first. I then have about 30 that will get a proper paint job (well, speed painted anyway) to finish everything up.

Also, as promised, I have some photos of the Malifaux board I entered into the competition the other week. There were only two people who entered and unfortunately I lost (it was 13 votes to 15) but maybe next time... The 8ft long snow table definitely had me on terrain quantity so looked rather impressive.

I played a good game of Malifaux on the board and got some feedback from a veteran player, I need a bit more terrain in the middle of the board to stop ranged crews from dominating but otherwise it is good. I'm thinking maybe a rail station and/or a stable would be a good idea...

My July Lootcrate came through, this month was Villains. I got another shirt, fridge magnet, key-chain, socks, comic book, a Villains DVD and a pair of prints. I'm pretty happy with this one, my key-chain had just broken, the comic was funny and the shirt and socks are awesome. I also really like the prints and hope the DVD is cool. Next month is Heroes, with an exclusive Pop! figure, which sounds good. This will be my first crate without a shirt so I hope it is good.

So one more thing this month is that I was accepted into the MightyApe referral program. Rather than let ads be plastered all over my blog this will hopefully be a bit less intrusive (whoever designed those auto-playing video ads with sound needs a good flogging) and maintain some of my integrity... The deal is that by clicking on the links I post (like the Dreadball one here and above) you will be taken to the MightyApe store page, if you buy something from MightyApe in that window I get a small commission. That will let me buy more things (I have my eye on a Dust Allied Starter...) and in turn let me post about more on my blog. The Wall of Shame will have the relevant titles updated with permanent links and generally there will be one or two links in my weekly (~ish) posts. Hopefully this won't upset too many people or change the function or operation of the blog. Of course if you are shopping at MightyApe anyway if you click through one of my links I still get some commission...

Day 215
69/215 Painted/Days passed
69/73 Painted/Bought
Goals:
Build a permanent gaming table.
Build a Kings of War army for playing with.
Complete my entry for the terrain competition.
Build and paint a set of Deadzone battle groups.
Build and paint a full Malifaux crew.
Finish all of the Dreadball teams and MVPs.
Finish painting an Infinity group.
Make some headway on my Warpath fluff.

Week 26 - Plague, Loot and the Old West

I have spent every day this week sick, but could only afford to take two days off from work. Throw in some very early nights and fever related concentration and you wouldn't have thought I would have done much this week. I have to admit that I made more progress than I expected! I busted out the paintbrush and started on my Plague for Deadzone, finishing 4 dogs and getting the first colour stages on the rest of the starter.

I also made significant progress on the Malifaux board. The board has been painted, flocked and is generally ready to go. It did warp in the middle of the week with the heavy rain, which was extremely disappointing but some weight on the ends has mostly sorted that out. I am very likely to shift to using foamed PVC sheets in place of MDF when I start making these for other people...

Luckily (?) the terrain competition is being delayed for three weeks, which means that if I can get some buildings and scatter terrain done by then I may have an entry... I have some building frames on order, hopefully they arrive with sufficient time to detail and paint. I have also roughed out a building from my scraps of foamed PVC which I will build to fit with the bought ones.

Lastly, I got a special package this week. In my Facebook browsing it came to my attention that a US company was producing geeky 'lootcrates' that are built to a theme which changes every month. A quick look at past crates had me hooked, so I took advantage of NZposts' Youshop feature and got one sent to me. Below is a picture of what came this month, with the theme 'Transform.'

So I got a T-shirt, Hexbug, Thundercracker figure, MLG month free voucher, MLG wristband, Lootcrate magazine, Warheads candy and some stickers. So it cost me about $45 all up to get, from that the shirt (or equivalent geeky print anyway) would set me back about $30 and the Thundercracker figure would be about $15. Those are items that I would have bought anyway, so I've not lost anything. The Hexbug looks pretty cool and sour candy is always nice. The magazine goes over the contents of the crate and some other little things and the Decepticon sticker will definitely find a place somewhere! The only things in the crate that don't really interest me were the MLG items. Seeing as my PC has a heart attack trying to open Excel, online gaming items aren't really much use to me...

If you want to get your own loot crate you can get a discount if you go through my referral link below:
http://mbsy.co/lootcrate/6857425

Next months crate closes on the 10th and has the theme 'Villains' with some items from Marvel, including a T-shirt.

Day 180
23/180 Painted/Days passed
23/57 Painted/Bought
Goals:
Build a permanent gaming table.
Build a Kings of War army for playing with.
Complete my entry for the terrain competition.
Build and paint a set of Deadzone battle groups.
Build and paint a full Malifaux crew.
Finish all of the Dreadball teams and MVPs.
Finish painting an Infinity group.
Make some headway on my Warpath fluff.