Buffy toy update

A first look at Monster High versions of Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel, and a newly announced Polly Pocket set coming out in September 4th. Why this is happening now I dont know, but okay I guess?

Can I use the school library mini-diorama...

RPGaDAY 2026 13. Strain

#RPGaDAY 2026

13. Strain

13. So far, what is the heaviest set of RPG things you have carried to play?

Probably the Christmas when I made half a dozen customised six inch scale action figures of the PCs for the players of The Watch House. Not actually that heavy but certainly bulky.

Autocratik

Runeslinger

Cara action figure happening

Found the long-haired Black Widow head, looked at available bodies that might work, bought one - X-23 from Deadpool & Wolverine. Right sort of height, decent articulation, plain grey trousers, black T-shirt and combat boots. The head is a bit high on the neck, but probably fixable. Now to look out my bits box for a sword, and separate the fingers and thumb on the right ungloved hand to hold it. Might remove the vest and T-shirt decal and repaint the sleeves so the T-shirt matches. if I get really ambitious, might Milliput on cargo trouser side pockets.

I would like to get a leather jacket torso and arms for her signaure look, maybe keeping the legs I got here, but given the current Jessica Jones is (a) in a two-pack with Daredevil for 55 quid and (b) sold out, that might have to wait.

There’s a reason I mostly did this for The Watch House during the run of Buffy and Angel figures.

Update update: found a Buffy figure jacket. Will see if the joints are at all compatible.

Update update update: found upper torso, took off X-23’s, not a perfect fit for lower torso or neck so some work still to be done. After that might go all in and paint her face.

Princess Of The Universe 3 live draft

Rose Bailey and divers hands at RPGnet look at Princess Of The Universe and a new update.

Masters Of The Universe (2026)

Masters Of The Universe arrives after some unforced errors eclipsing the fact that it’s directed by Travis Knight of Kubo And The Two Strings and Bumblebee and is as colourful and well choreographed, a visual treat where you can tell what’s going on in the fights.

It’s very Guardians Of The Galaxy and even more Thor: Ragnarok, and that’s good. And fairly Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves but of course could have been that more.

The main credits include a rare mention of a specific musician - because it’s Brian May. Because of course it is!

And related to that the makers of the Highlander remake might be a bit annoyed.

Not even the weirdest needle drop.

Nicholas Galitzine’s exiled prince turned bored human resources guy getting to do some human resources fu was my favourite little runner.

Nice to see Camila Mendes following Riverdale with something much more grounded.

You can’t see the guy playing Skeletor, or really hear him recognisably, so that works out.

Start of credits, mid credits and end credits scenes. Hrmph.

Bring me the head of...

See a great suggestion for a head for a custom action figure, look on eBay, find the figure unusually cheap, and the seller notes they took the head for a custom. (Rose McIver as RPM Yellow Ranger for Olivia Holt.) I wonder if it’s the same person.

Jaws games

When I was a kid we had the original Jaws game. A Buckaroo variant where you fish things out of a plastic sharks mouth and lose if it snaps shut. I’m not kidding.

Howdy howdy howdy!

Some missing pieces meant Bruce the shark spent more time fighting Action Man.

(There’s now a more screen accurate rerelease for the anniversary. I’m still not kidding.)

There have also been more involved board and video games since.

I could imagine a small town horror game running a few sessions, though the last encounter would be a bit tactical for my style, unless it ran entirely on high fatality vibes, maybe with a Dead Of Night transferable survival system to possibly avoid a TPK.

Lightyear

Lightyear is an odd choice for Saturday before Easter, though not for lead-in to Doctor Who.

Though it does feature someone heroically sacrificing his happiness to atone for a (minor) error and returning to his people again and again after a long time away.

I think one reason it wasn’t a hit (besides CHUDs screaming) is that for an animated space adventure about one of the goofier heroes in Toy Story it’s kind of a bummer.

Star Trek toys update

Master Replicas prototyping and pre-ordering figures for the modern Star Trek series, aiming to get core crews out, in the 4.5” scale of long-running line by Playmates though not in their top-heavy style. Although the figures still look a bit top-heavy due to skinny legs. The Lower Decks ones look really nice, however.

Not sure why we have Raylan from Justified as Riker though...

(Another company is making high-end Star Wars scale Kelvin figures, and another company is prepping a 6” line of mostly frankly baffling characters like Jellico and Tuvix. Don’t look at me, I had some of the Megos.)

Also looking to be making prop toys like phasers and tricorders for the first time at toy prices since 2009. Which would be nice.

Adventure Calendar 2024 14: Snow Forts

Adventure Calendar 2024

14: Snow Forts

Snow Forts: Build a structure you can get into out of snow and/or ice. (Or a smaller equivalent like a sandcastle.)

Igloos are the traditional shelter made from blocks, while making a hollow in a pile of snow is called a quinzhee.

Crude, but effective.

Actually needing shelter is a clear reason why PCs might do this.

And sometimes you have no option because you’re on Hoth.

A playset where polystyrene packing would really help.

(I never saw the Micro Collection minis scale sets and remain annoyed about this.)

Some might also do it for a particularly long-lasting snowball fight.

Making castles out of ice and snow is a cold-powered antagonist classic.

Even Elsa chooses to build with the mountain providing shelter from the sun.

A lot of Bond villains have lairs in the cold, hence Inception playing with it, though using an ice hotel as a base in a Die Another Day thing.

Assaulting a snow fort or ice castle presents various tactical options and challenges. You can break through ice more easily than stone, but that also means structural hazards...

View-Master: The Motion Picture

I can imagine how a View-Master movie could work... as a jokey horror movie...

The Klingon D7

I was today old when I learned (hi Dave!) that the classic Klingon D7 starship was the result of Star Trek designer Matt Jeffries knowing the owner of a model kit company who wanted something to market next to their Enterprise, so Jeffries designed it for him to make a film model. As arguments in favour of talking to the merch people go, this is one of the better ones.

#RPGaDay2024 29 - Awesome app

#RPGaDay2024

29 - Awesome app

Does making notes in email and sending them to myself count?

29a - App

Researching online is about as much of an issue for horror as mobile phones. But it’s also an opportunity to have demons on the internet.

29b - Knight

Knights in shining armour are among my childhood heroes, collections of toys and the like.

I have Playmobil Knights dating back to when they were localised as Playpeople.

I don’t think I’ve ever quite played one though. Partially from not playing a lot of fantasy, partially from getting into deconstructing it early as a Warhammer GM, partially from the main fantasy game being zero-to-hero so it would take levels to get to that point, and partially from running Pendragon for one session due to too many Monty Python And The Holy Grail quotes.

And after this thought I now want to do this properly.

David Chapman

Runeslinger

#RPGaDay2024 28 - Great gamer gadget

#RPGaDay2024

28 - Great gamer gadget

Something that seems to have vanished - novelty keyrings with sound effects. Nowadays if you want a lightsabre whoosh or a Wilhelm Scream there’s an app for that, but I’d prefer a suitable little toy with buttons.

Of course I’d really want one I could choose the sounds for.

This dates from around 2012.
TARDIS, Sonic, Daleks, Cybermen, K-9, Judoon gun
What does a Judoon gun sound like again?

On that note, starting a new Star Trek game and I’d pick up a proper toy phaser if there was one on shelves at the moment that would be nice. Particularly tempted if it makes zappy sounds.

28a - Gadget

My favourite gadget rules, as seen in games as diverse as TOON, Leverage and the Preparedness skill in Night’s Black Agents, are a bit of a specific take on player influence on the narrative where instead of the GM working in the gadgets a PC has, the player gets to say “I have a gadget that does this!” when the GM presents a problem.

28b - Mimic

A day after Shapeshifting, so taking mimics and mimicry in a different direction, mundane disguise. (Which can also tie in the gadgets with the Mission: Impossible masks.)

David Chapman

Runeslinger on dogs

#RPGaDay2024 18 - Memorable moment of play

#RPGaDay2024

18 - Memorable moment of play

The moment I knew The Watch House was going to be more than a monster-of-the-week game was when Milli’s player asked Jake’s if he was cool with Milli being in unrequited love with Jake. And this was right after Jake started dating Emma the helpful friendly witch NPC so it would create a love triangle. He chuckled and agreed and we were off to the heartache races.

Of course it ended with a swordfight. This was a Buffy game.

18a - Moment

Time travel games are the most likely to let PCs have “save points” where they can go back and redo something. It’s rare otherwise despite being a popular choice in computer games and ever since flicking back in a gamebook after discovering a choice led to a trap, because the GM and player have to do the rewinding rather than the system doing it for them.

18b - Curse

I feel like this could have been day 13.

A curse is a good way to motivate PCs to action, especially one with a countdown attached. (See M. R. James references on day one.)

David Chapman

Runeslinger

A Smurfs RPG

Weird - weirder than the My Little Pony ones as they have active shows - but never mind.

Star Trek toyetic update

While there are of course many toys and models and the like for Star Trek, preparing for STA Valiant part two got me thinking.

Modiphius make miniatures of TOS and TNG main characters and generic types, now available through 3D printing, not that we use miniatures anyway, and not a big selection but at least we would have some. HeroClix has others, but that involves hunting individual figures online. (You wait years for an official Star Trek character miniatures range and two come along at once. And then both do TOS and TNG and stop.)

And among assorted unofficial versions the card standup maker keeps expanding.

Commander Sofia Melnyk, Star Trek Beyond style as the dress isn't as short...

Hello boys!

Trousers for use sometimes, Strange New Worlds version.
Doing Ann-Margret properly she should really be in a top and leggings anyway.

And looking at 3D printing and retro TOS stylings, I discovered that not only are there Star Fleet Battles renders and STLs -

I like swept-back nacelle struts. I am a child of my times.

... but someone has made the FASA DIY ships too, many of which were goofy but some hit me right in the 1980s expanded universe nostalgia.

This is the best angle for several of them.

I love the Chandley...

... but the Northampton looks like a bundle of sticks.

I would happily add some of the Klingon ships though. Not so many Birds of Prey of different size!

Make the D10 canon! Ironically for a d20 game.

And on the subject of 3D printing, it seems to be the only way to get a decent phaser nowadays, let alone the versions from the current shows. And communicators are rare and tricorders are rarer still. I should have bought myself the set in 2009.

The currently available phaser, a Kelvin style in white and orange.

They also make this bright blue TOS phaser (apparently an improvement over an orange one)
but it's import only and therefore about as much as a proper one you can get for about twenty pounds.

Also the dice are OOP.

Bumblebee director for Masters Of The Universe?

Travis Knight is also a key member of Laika animation studio.

Lord Of Tears

31 Days Of Horror 13

Lord Of Tears aka The Owlman (2013)

Trailer

A man inherits a country house from his estranged mother with a letter telling him never to go there. The alternative-titular Owlman appears early on, a threatening presence in long shots and some sudden closeups with a tendency to ominous poetry. But the man stays to investigate anyway, helped by the house’s caretaker.

Making good use of a location and a monster costume, this close to zero budget video feature still runs a bit long and overuses “waking from a nightmare but not really” jumps, and there are a couple of characters who could have been integrated better so I wasn’t waiting for them to show why they were there. But the creepy bits are effectively creepy.

Director Lawrie Brewster and his group Hex Films have done a fair few features since, and they just completed a Kickstarter for an anthology film reviving the UK horror brand Amicus Studios, and I can see a shorter format working and fitting this kind of feel. Seeing this feels quite Amicus-y in its style already.

And he’s revisited the Owlman a couple of times too - and the Owlman also just came out as an action figure which may have cost more to produce than the film did (and which comes with an accessory based on an implied but never shown spoiler).

The medium: streaming free with ads here and there.

Hellraisers

31 Days of Horror 13

A rewatch and a new-to-me on actual physical media!

21: Hellraiser (1987)

Trailer

Author Clive Barker’s directorial debut, about a man coveting his brother’s wife while also in the process of coming back from the dead. Mostly known, as the trailer and art going back to the original poster show, for the Cenobites, the beings responsible for the actual villain being dead but not quite dead enough. I always liked the idea, lost pretty much immediately in the series, that they’re monsters but not necessarily villains.

All the hook and chain violence was always so extreme I couldn’t relate but the bit where Larry cuts his hand makes me wince every time.

The medium: The Arrow DVD comes with a Barker commentary track, a Barker and Ashley Laurence commentary track, an original making-of and a retrospective and a barker interview and a featurette about the unused Coil soundtrack... (and now a 4K option too)

In related news, spamming from an online knockoff store...

Not today, thank you...

22: Hellraiser (2022)

Trailer