Internet Hodgepodge: Fun Video, Latest Blogger Gremlin & Twitter Stuff

Just an in-between painting update. Currently waiting for some deliveries to finish a commission and get full into another. Ran across a fun Game of Thrones video... not to fear: no spoilers, it's just silly fun.
See below at the end.

Latest gripe about Blogger...

No, not that my threaded comments still refuse to work, even though I have rewritten the code just like the guides say.

No, not that Blogger ignores questions and pleas for help on such issues... a main reason I won't run my business website by a blogger blog, since there are always problems that arise and there is no help.
Get what you pay for I guess.

No, this time it is with phantom traffic.
Not the stupid fake traffic bot sites that visit, hoping I'll be dumb enough to click on them.
This is mysterious and completely pointless as far as I can see.

The last few weeks I've been getting sudden spikes of traffic that do not show up in the source list, so I don't know who or where it is from and therefore it really is pointless if it's just a redirector bot.

But I find it annoying because it gives a false impression of the real visits.
I can expect, on average, about 300-350 real visits a day when I don't have a new post, another 150-200 on top of that when I have a new post, and maybe 600-700 if I promote and link from a minis forum site or two.

But the traffic I'm getting is obviously falsely inflated. Check this out:

Really... over 1,000 visits in the day when I haven't put up a new post? No.
Look at those two spikes of 26 visits each.  A sudden rush of 26 visits in & out in a moment.
But no indication of a traffic source and not coming to a particular post, just the blog in general.

About 1/3 to half the traffic is these fake spikes, depending how many attack, it can vary and it isn't consistent when it happens.

It doesn't seem to do any harm, just annoying since I find it interesting to see how many visits I get.
Which I can't do when I can't trust the numbers.

Whoever does this gets nothing out of it, since I have nothing to click on like an idiot.

Anyone else getting this kind of thing?

Moving on...

I've been experimenting with Twitter.

I resisted it for a long time, since I don't have any interest in what people had for lunch or what they think about Celebrity X. But a friend kept emailing me twitters of  Simpsons Quote of the Day and other amusing things, and there is some miniatures activity on it, so I bit and will post on it now and then.

Sometimes I have small minis progress that doesn't seem to warrant an entire blog post, so i've found that worthy of throwing up a work in progress picture now and then. These types of pictures might be rolled into a later Blog Post about the project in question, so you're unlikely to completely miss out, but if you want it faster it might be worth following.

If you do use Twitter and are interested my Twitter is: Laughing Ferret @Laughing_Ferret 
Oh, who would have seen that coming right?

Most of what I've subscribed to are feeds of other things that interest me, like astronomy pictures, history pictures and animals, along with some minis of course. Some of the history pictures are interesting, but almost always very serious, and my MST3K sense of humor often finds me thinking irreverent comments, so just for fun I also made a new Twitter

Twistory Snaps @TwistorySnaps

I figure when I see these historical pictures and these ideas come out I'll have a place to throw them and not be tempted to clutter the blog with short nonsense.. saving the space for extended nonsense as it should be.

If I get followers and it's fun I'll keep at it, we'll see.

And the most fun: 

Game of Thrones by bad lip reading.

Enjoy!

Top 10 Worst Robots of the Movies

After posting the Top 10 Robots of the Movies, by popular demand ("demand" meaning suggested, "popular" meaning I liked the suggestion) I present the Top 10 Worst Robots of the Movies.

Just as it was with the Worst Monsters, Worst Robots could be robots that are poorly designed, poorly conceived, or just simply stupid or lame.  They also have to be robots from movies I have seen.

So on with the Robots!

#10: Robbie, No, I mean Uncle Simon

Now, Robbie the Robot is a great robot who nearly made my 10 best Robot list, so what is this about?
Well, this isn't Robbie. In the Twilight Zone episode "Uncle Simon" they take Robbie, remove his cool under the bubble head-innards and replace it with a coffee can with someone's diaphragm stuck to it. But that isn't what earned this robot a spot on this list. Oh no.  This robot is "Uncle Simon".  In the story,  the niece of an aging inventor, herself not getting any younger, decides to off the insufferable old crank.  But wanting to extend his ability to inflict misery long past the grave, the inventor designs a robot and programs it to be him!
Now the niece must spend the rest of her life caring for a jerk robot who crankily insists she make him hot chocolate despite that he can't even drink!

Robots are supposed to make our lives better. That's the deal. That's the promise of futurism: we paid for that with losing all our factory jobs to these iron machines.  But if you can't even kill a spiteful rich relative and inherit their money, and instead must be a servant to an equally spiteful rich robot then what's the point of advanced technology?  Bad robot.

#9: Battle Droids

Someone fire the engineer who designed these and hang the dolt who requisitioned hundreds of thousands of them.  The Trade Syndicate of Fu Man Chu, or whatever they were called, had some really impressive attack robots in their army. Take that roller droid with shields and heavy quad blasters.  Suh-weet. Fast, durable, devastating.  What was wrong with just making tens of thousands of those? But no.. instead they decide to manufacture inept raw recruits. What were they thinking?  I will say though that this will eventually lead to the success of the Rebellion in Luke's day. Why?  Perfectly obvious.  The droid army is pathetic: they die easily and in droves and they can't hit the broadside of a bantha at close range.  So when the Republic needs soldiers, they design the troopers with their enemy in mind: substandard is more than good enough.
Ever wonder why storm troopers can't hit anything with their blasters and their armor offers all the protection of wet toilet paper?  They were designed with Battle Droids as their enemy and only got worse over time.
So good news for the future Rebellion, they have very lame robots to thank for it.

#8: Box

Almighty guardian of the Frozen Food Isle in Logan's Run.  I'm pretty sure this is a large version of one of my Grandmother's fancy salt shakers. First of all, he inhabits a frozen cave: slick uneven surfaces, and has some kind of rollers to move around... probably not the best design.  But worst of all is the chrome Gerber Baby head. That's just unnecessarily creepy.  What locks it though is his frost-addled processors.  Anything living he sees as food and he's ready to freeze it up for the future.. for what?  Who's going to eat it if anything that could is also food?

#7: Johnny Cab

This is progress? Bring back the surly cabby that smells of cigarettes, it's better than this! With a human interface that is just efficient enough to be completely frustrating, it heaps it on with an annoying voice and a face that looks like Don Knotts picturing you in his sister's underwear.  Really, who designed this robot and wasn't fired on the spot by the Johnny Cab Co?  The fact that it also has a tendency to explode in a fireball only adds to the problems of this already horrible robot.

#6: Kronos

From the movie Kronos comes a massive towering robot that comes to Earth to impose Bauhaus Architecture.  No wait, I think that was the sequel.. This building-like robot comes to Earth to 'steal electric and atomic energy'.  So... some aliens are jacking us for our juice?  Do they come from the Planet Detroit?
The premise is ridiculous: if you have the energy to send this thing across light years why do you need to recharge it's batteries to send it home, where it would then likely be out of power again.  The sun has far more atomic energy than pesky humans have made, and the sun doesn't have tanks and planes to attack your building, I mean robot.  Oh it's just too dumb.  Next.

#5: Muffit the Daggit

OK, when I was a kid I really really wanted a daggit.  They're cool.  So has my heart hardened so much that I criticize it now?  No, that isn't it.  Why? Because I'm not Boxy. I'm not living in a metal room in a bigger metal room, fleeing for my life from homicidal robots intent on exterminating my species.  When you've narrowly escaped genocide by cylons, and know robots want to kill you, what's a better gift for such a young child than a robot dog? Maybe playing hide & seek in the airlock.  Anything, but giving the kid a robot dog! Either it is going to traumatize him for life, or if he makes it to adulthood without daily panic attacks he's likely to think robots just might be friendly long enough for a cylon to kill him.
Great present Dad, maybe you should have gone with socks.

#4: Torg

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.  And why wouldn't he?  If this robot is representative of the might of the Martian War Machine, even the Easter Bunny has good odds. Torg is the classic garage-made robot suit: cardboard box, paint drum, ventilation tubes and some spare junk.  The problem is, this is a Movie, not your kid's Halloween costume.  Then again.. look at those martians.  Yikes.  Torg's scene is cut short of any good battle action since the presence of Santa renders him into a Toy.  Probably over-effort on Santa's part, the snow would soon have turned that cardboard box to mulch.

#3: Stepford Wives/Goldfoot Bikini Fembots

Two sides of the same coin.
You know the old saying about the two ways a woman wants to be treated when inside and out of the bedroom?  Well that only counts for real women.  I dread when we get this level of technology, because it will happen: it's already happening, and probably in Japan first, knowing Japan.. but soon after: the world.
Why?  Because most men are idiots and think this is a good idea.
The extremes of these female archetypes is nauseating.  I wouldn't want a real woman like either of these but a robotic one is even worse.  The Stepford housewife would be a true nightmare.  I can do my own grocery shopping and cooking thanks anyway. And the other? If it isn't real it has no value.
If men think that fake women are the answers to their problems they'll find they only have more unhappiness because their problems will remain, but they'll think they shouldn't be, since they 'solved' it... didn't the 1950's teach anyone anything?
Vincent Price was still pretty damn cool though.

#2: Twiki

Robot who held the title of 'most annoying robot' for the most years in a row, only recently dethroned, Twiki is one seriously lame robot.  Humans in their vanity tend to prefer robots that reflect their own physical image, so what the hell is with making a robot hobbit in a paige-boy haircut?  His job seems to have been to carry around a super smart computer in a cookie tin, so why make Twiki at all?  Why not just make legs for that smart legless computer?  And that voice! I guess if you do make a robot hobbit with a paige-boy haircut, you may as well sample porky pig for his voice files.

I wonder if it is a crime to kill robots in the 25th century?

#1: Skids & Mudflap

No.  Just No.
Go back in time, hold the writers at gunpoint and rewrite these annoying robots out of what is already a lousy movie.  I don't like transformers.  I don't get it, I think they're pretty lame.  I didn't grow up on them, so maybe that's why.  But despite that I don't care for transformers, and there are many of them, you don't see any of the others on this list.  Yet this duo stormed in and stole top spot away from the robot that has annoyed me the most for most of my life. That's some impressive suckiness.

I'm not even going to touch the criticisms of them being 'racist' or not, because even if they're completely exonerated of that charge, they are still the worst robots on this list.  It's like complaining that Hitler was anti-Semitic.. you know what?  Even if he wasn't, he still killed about 12 million people, so it isn't like he'd be considered a nice guy if we found out he didn't have anything against the Jews personally.
Still a monster of a human being.

We don't need to debate if these robots are racist or not, they're just terrible robots regardless.
The fact they might also be worse is just garbage icing on a crapcake.

They are annoying. They are stupid.  The glorification of ignorance they represent is offensive.
Every time they talk I'd prefer it was replaced with a symphony of nails running down chalkboards and into the backs of cats in heat.

I don't know much about Decepticons, but if they want to kill these two, I'd throw in with them.

....................................

So what are your most despised robots? 

I've now covered 10 good and 10 bad, but if you're still in the mood for robot fun, here you go:

A picture of most of the robots that have appeared in film of one type or another.  

I've spotted a couple absences, but a lot more I don't know.  

While you hunt for robots, enjoy the film!

(sorry it has an ad, couldn't find a copy without an ad)

Top 10 Worst Monsters of the Movies

Following my recent list of Top Giant Monsters and Top Not-Giant Monsters, I had to give nods to the other kings of monster movies: the really terrible, the stupid or just plain lazy monsters of the movies.

This list has tougher competition than the previous by a wide margin. So let's set the parameters. 

1. They have to be monsters from movies I have seen.  I have heard of lots of truly stupid monsters... a refrigerator that eats people, the 'death bed' that does the same.. a killer living gingerbread man.. ok, granted some really lame monsters, but if I haven't seen them, I'm not going to list them.  I'll just count myself lucky I've missed some of those. 

2. The monster has to have been intended to be taken at least somewhat seriously.  

Killer Tomatoes don't fit that but a lot of  B-Movie monsters do. 

On with the count down! 

#10: Torgo

Dear gods what a stupid excuse for a monster.  For fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000, this is a true classic.  Torgo is the caretaker, and presumably guard, for 'Manos, Hands of Fate'.  What Mr. Manos is exactly isn't quite clear. Torgo however it is clear is slow.  I mean, he's a Satyr. But he's also slow, and not just when walking.  He's a drowsy eyed, slow talking hick of a Satyr that manages to make any scene with him just grueling to get through.

#9: Bride of Frankenstein

Before you reach for your pitchfork and circle around my house, let me explain. She's awesome, but she's constantly presented as a monster-icon and she isn't a monster!  Poor woman is just a victim, torn between the selfish jealous battle of egos of two men. Yeah, she's got some scars and was brought back to life but I just don't accept her as a monster, just a victim of circumstance: wrong place, wrong time. She has no malice, she isn't scary,in fact she's downright gorgeous: reanimated or not, I'd date her.
So: not a monster but presented as a monster = bad monster.

#8: Squirm

What a lazy monster! Was this pitched after a weekend fishing trip? "Worms are icky, let's make monster worms!" And somehow this little town has enough worms to fill the volume of 3 equal sized towns. There are more worms than dirt. Granted after seeing this as kids I had a lot of fun for the rest of the summer scaring my sister.. just whisper 'squirm' when eating spaghetti .. great fun.  But creeping out an 8 year old girl is no standard for a good monster.

#7: Giant Gila Monster

There are a lot of monsters like this: just take a regular size small animal and let it wander around a scale model. Just utterly lazy.  It's great dumb fun, but it is dumb.

#6: Eye Creatures

Representing the rubber suit monsters: The Eye Creatures. Wow but that's some bad costuming.  This is one of my favorite MST3K episodes.  The Eye Creatures only come out at night, though half the night scenes are taken in the day.  The zipper down the suit's back is clearly visible, as the crew of the Satellite of Love pointed out "they just didn't care." Worst of all, the Achilles heal of the monster is sodium: Salt.

#5: Signs Aliens

Rather cool aliens in the classic 'grey & too-human' alien tradition.  Alien invasion is always good for a setting. They even walk cool. But their Achilles heel is what makes them a stupid monster: water.
OK, maybe a species from another world could react to water the way we would with acid, but this is a species smart enough to travel vast light years across space, plan and mount an invasion, to a water world when water is deadly to them?  That isn't just a dumb monster they are dumb monsters!
"Say Joe, I hear we're hitting dirt side tomorrow?"
"You know it Bob!  Another world for our Galactic Empire, we'll show those monkeys!  Just watch out for the water."
"Water? Cripes! I didn't hear about water! They have that here?  It's contained I hope?"
"Oh no Bob. In fact, 2/3 of the surface is covered with the deadly stuff.  We'll go down on land, but even still, the stuff falls out of the sky randomly & often.. it also collects as a vapor nearly every morning. The inhabiting race loves the stuff- they spray it on their lawns, drink it, in fact, they're mostly made of the stuff and can even spit it at you several feet."
"I hope we'll be going down in protective suits..."
"And show our inferiority? No sir! Heading out nude! That should show them how brave we are!"

Yeah.  Stupid. So stupid.

#4: Sparkling Vampires

Yep. I got suckered into watching one of these Twilight movies.  Don't remember which one.
Vampires. I like Vampires, how bad could it be? I even enjoyed Buffy.. nope. it can be bad. Terrible in fact.
This takes 98% of the sinister out of vampires and replaces it with sparkle.  I should just stop there, that's plenty to justify this as one of the worst monsters of all time. I could accept vampires that don't burst into flames when exposed to sunlight.. maybe like golum, it's just unbearable, or like nazgul, it makes them weaker, but they avoid it because they fear humans seeing them for their beautiful self?  This is so watered down for pre-teen girl infatuation they might as well be ponies.
They'd probably be better monsters if they were ponies.

#3: Hunky-abbed  Werewolves Who Ignore Conservation of Mass

For all the reason the Twilight Vampires are lame monsters, these are lame monsters.  I'm fine with noble werewolves, that's kind of cool, but boy-toys who's ab ridges compete with brow ridges for most serious brooding ridges is laughable.  The biggest problem though is taking this seriously when the laws of physics are blatantly ignored.  It's a monster.. I get that, so let's assume a human can transform into a wolf. I could accept that,but I can't accept that it happens in the blink of an eye all the while increasing it's mass four-fold.
Look at that wolf!  Talking of ponies... it's as big as a horse!  Where did the added mass come from?? Is it less dense than a man?  Is it hollow like a chocolate Easter bunny? It should be on fire with the friction that rapid transformation took place with the energy released that'd be needed.  If it's all done by 'magic' then that is just lazy.  Incorrect, Lazy, Gratuitous appeal to pre-teen infatuation: lame monster.

#2:  Langoliers

I want my 6 hours of life back. Or however long this mini-series was. This is just beyond dumb.
The pac-man garbage disposal of the waste-bi-product of reality.  Yeah, I don't want it eating me, but it just looks so dumb, and the explanation and proposition was so thin.  The only saving grace was the characters were so annoying you couldn't wait for them to be eaten, so the monsters could double as the hero.

#1: Robot Monster

King of the bad rubber suit monsters!  And a top contender for lazy monster too.
Ingredients: take 1 gorilla suit, add diving helm and TV antenna: presto! Instant monster.

What is it?  I ask because I'm pretty sure the director never bothered to.

This is just awesome bad.  It's so bad I can't help but love it.
It's come full circle and occupies Terrible and Brilliant at the same time.
An explosive paradox of monster.  I couldn't give top place to anyone else.

You can get your own robomonster, Khurusan sells 15mm miniatures of these.. just too fun.

.....................................

So what are your favorite terrible monsters?

It's Thursday, you don't want to work.. so sit back and enjoy the full Robot Monster movie!

Evolve Past the Playground Please: On that Satirotypical Wargame Mocking UK article

Not living in the United Kingdom, I doubt that I would have ever heard about an article written to be a political poke that used the apparently laughable mock-worthy hobby of wargaming as the vector for criticism. 
The article is anything but groundbreaking: just the same old tropes paraded out for expediency.

But it has generated some interesting discussion, such as over at Porky's Expanse (always good for a dip in the cerebral pool) and Big Lee has a lot of interesting things to say about it too. And the topic is making the rounds.

I started leaving a comment at Big Lee's when I realized it was going to get long. and involved.
I tend to get very anthropological when I consider society.  It's just one of the major lenses I look at things with.  But it's not a quick way to explain society: I can't just leave things at 'it's good' or 'that'll do some damage, I can't approve' or other similar fast sum-ups. So of course this is less about the article that spawned the discussion and more about the implications it makes about human society in general.

So I thought I'd better just give it the room and get it out of my system.

Regarding the article and all such examples of group-think chest thumping, this is an example of the weakest form of conformity: the author is appealing to a wider group for approval and acceptance by denigrating a smaller group perceived to have less social standing. It's the equivalent of a jerk at a party chiming into a serious conversation with "it's like women drivers, am I right?"  .. well, no..you're just a jerk. 

As a pack-species, humanity has a strong desire to be part of a group. Unfortunately, one of the easiest ways to draw the lines of that group is by pointing out those who are not desired in the group.  It is beneath a sentient, thinking-individual to let those instincts trample over reason and marginalize other people.  

Millions of years of evolution thrown aside for the quick security blanket of the bully. 

The fact that this kind of mentality also stifles free expression, creativity and individuality is another shame, since those are some of the greatest attributes of our species.  

Every subculture group can find examples of individuals that fit the negative stereotypes associated with their group but that doesn't validate the stereotype. Also troubling is the idea that a derogatory stereotype is being supported by people within the hobby being stereotyped. As if joining an outside group in mocking the 'stereotypical' members of their own hobby-group somehow protects them and establishes them to the larger society as 'one of the good ones'.  Plenty of examples in history of the dangers of that type of thinking.  No one is going to appreciate all hobbies, but to appeal to mockery for social acceptance is just sad and should be beneath someone's dignity. 

When you get down to it, the very notion that one hobby or another, one subcultural past-time or another, is 'cool' or not, socially acceptable or not, is just silly.

It is all pretend really. That's what makes me laugh about how serious some people take stereotypes and society's approval over what is 'cool' or not. It's a playground-level of stupidity.

It is all just random and made up!  It's like fashion. Someone decides they like something, some others like it too, and if they have enough social pressure and 'authority' behind their opinion then they plant their flag of coolness on it and declare victory.  

Children are the most feral and instinctual of human beings. Not many of them think, and not very often. 

They run on their instincts.  They create social groups around the most trivial of things. 

'If your shoes have three stripes you're a loser, cool kids have a crescent' or 'your sunglasses have oval lenses so you are lame, you need round lenses'.. etc. But kids are instinctual animals just driven by their pack-animal DNA, can't really blame them.  

But how many adults ever grow out of it?  Not enough apparently: "your hobby is for dorks, our hobby means we're cool so we make fun of you" or "your god is false, our god is the real god, so we can kill you"... some wide ranging affects there but the root of it is the same: random, imaginary social guidelines grounded in nothing more than personal whim and the comfort in collecting others of like minds to make those of different taste miserable. Do we really all need to be the same to be accepted? 

It really doesn't matter what people enjoy doing as long as it isn't harming anyone else.  It can all appear pretty ridiculous when you pull back from it.  Is pushing little painted miniatures around a miniature landscape playing out a battle any odder than sitting on a couch, yelling in excitement or anger while watching grown men run around a field with a ball? Is spending time creating miniature soldiers any odder than time spent knitting, or restoring antique cars, or gardening, or collecting spoons?  

We're an odd & varied species.  Our hobbies and interests are bound to reflect that. 

We should embrace it.  It will make life better for all of us. 

Give a Banner Bearer a Break! & micro rant on not dazzled by bedazzlers

I understand that I am quite possibly alone in this.
If not alone, then a safer bet is in a low population minority looked on with confusion by the majority.

But I'm just not a fan of massive amount of detail.

I prefer the elegance of simplicity over the burden of Baroque.

Games Workshop: please halt the mechanized decapitator of your skull-making factory.
Privateer Press: not every mini must compete in spikiness against the Shrike.
Mini Manufacturers everywhere: It is ok for a mini not to carry the contents of their household in bags & packs.

Not all of course..many fall right where I like it best: Copplestone, Zombiesmith, World of Twilight

I suspect the trend in details started as the cost of metal went up and the relative cost of having sculptors outdo one another to add more detail was insignificant in cost in the overall process, and companies were eager to show off the finer detail of the ever increasing quality of casting techniques.

But just because the technology can do it, doesn't mean it is always an improvement.
Just because it now must cost me twice what a miniature once cost doesn't mean I'll feel I 'get my money's worth' if the mini has 35 skulls & tiddlybobs all over him.

If a pizza is going to cost twice what it used to because the cost of running the oven is twice what it used to be, don't throw walnut shells and candy corn on it thinking I'll be happier about it.

So I've been noticing a tendency for miniatures to be too detailed lately.
Just laden down with a Liberace-level of visual confetti.

Someone thought Versailles furniture was a good idea, so I imagine someone- manyones- probably love all the gory and gaudy detail but I think it's often overmuch.

So I've noticed I have been converting to remove detail rather than add it.

One of the most afflicted are banners.
How often is a mini forced to hold up a banner half the size of a tallship's mainsail, adorned with an anvil, half dozen corpses, minotaur skulls, or made of solid brass?

So here are some Skorne conversions. I love the idea of Skorne, who make me think of VSF Martians in a lot of ways, and their beasts are great.  But I find I remove all the back banners, clip off the multi-back spikes, shave the horns off shoulder pads, and more.

Their banners are especially burdensome. Here are three after converting:

These have plenty of detail. Almost too much even after converting, to my eye.  Plenty of spiky parts and charms, showing an ornamental culture. For two of these I've used back banners removed from characters to be the standard, and the third I cut away a lot of the extra bits that to my mind looked like someone had designed it in absent minded doodling while bored in class.

The originals:

Maybe nothing wrong with them, just not a style I appreciate: it's just too much.

A: Army standard: This might look cool mounted on a wall, but that solid metal gong icon must be impossible to hold up! Completely awkward even if it is painted wood.

B: Just a flag, but a big one! But this is just a unit's banner, should it be bigger than the army standard? and notice the side metal on the right edge, much like the one C has on the left side? that'd be a lot of extra weight for this poor fellow to hold!

C: That side metal jutting out, up and back to hold a flag that a simple pole up would hold seems silly, plus it detracts from the banner it is holding.

So I replaced the two massive items and cut away the pointless metal pole detour on the third, opting for simpler icons.

Sometimes less is more.  Or I think so at any rate.

Oh, and get off my lawn.
;)

Nasty Hobbitsess

The companions to the dwarves in the last update, a host of hobbits!

These are all old oop classic citadel halflings.

A real joy to paint. One of the things I like about painting commissions is that I get to paint things I otherwise wouldn't, like a bunch of hard to find miniatures! It really had me thinking, and not for the first time, what is wrong with GW? I swear that their decisions can only adequately be explained by a desire to socially condition gamers:

GW exec "They want what? Squats? Zoats? Fimir? New Blood Bowl sculpts? Man O'War? Hell, I haven't seen a fimir around here in ages, we stopped making them and all the rest of that stuff. Why? To make more shelf room for Space Marines that's why! Yeah yeah, I understand shelf room doesn't matter much in the age of internet orders, but it's Space Marines, they'll love em! What? Well maybe they'll stop loving that other stuff once they forget about them- just keep showing the new, limited range we're plugging: that'll do the trick.  Yeah yeah, I know the other stuff would sell, but not as well as the big dogs we push, if we continue to remove that other stuff they'll have no choice but to buy what we want them to buy!"

Really, it's all I can think of: Space Marines & certain items, like 40k in general have a greater profit margin, so there must be a belief that eliminating the *less* profitable choices will increase sales in the *more* profitable.  Nonsense.  Just because something sold is less profitable, doesn't mean it isn't worth selling- if it does sell, then they made money, and expanded the customer base & customer happiness, which will create more & more loyal customers as time goes on.  It seems completely illogical to think that if people can't buy a new GW Blood Bowl team, or new (or old classic they chose to stop making) Epic armies that instead these folks will just play 40k instead.  Some might, but I'm guessing most won't: they'll head to Impact minis, Greebo, Willy, Gaspez-Arts, Neomics, convert their own, or more for Blood Bowl, or maybe pick up Dropzone Commander for their small-scale fix.

What if all businesses did this?  Should Coca-Cola stop producing Dr.Pepper simply because it doesn't sell as much as Coke? An absurd idea. Without the choice of Dr.Pepper some may choose Coke, but many might chose a replacement that isn't something they produce.

I'm just a small unimportant little business, much like a hobbit, so far from me to know everything that goes on in the concerns of the 'Big People' but my common hobbit sense says people will be happier with your stew if it has potatoes, onion, celery, and tomatoes in it, rather than just load it with nothing but potatoes just because it's the favorite and it's easier to plant nothing but potatoes.

A lot of the new stuff GW has come out with recently is great, but people still want these classic sculpts, as well as other things, and I can't help thinking GW is crazy for not continuing to make them available and maintain and expand the older games many still love.

And this is sometimes where my mind wanders as I paint some great classic sculpts that are out of production and can't for the life of me think why they should be.

Mental meanderings /off.

... Hobbits!

Click for larger:

The fancy guard was missing his weapon, so I supplied him with a spear.  

So much character in these sculpts, hard for me to pick a favorite, but I'm leaning toward the one at the upper right corner.  

Just Roll With It

Well, it's been both a very busy and a very bad week.

The kind of week that makes you question what the point of anything is when it seems people are trying their hardest to make the world as terrible as they possibly can and prevent any common sense and modicum of kindness from having an effect enough to help you find a better way.

I also saw Cloud Atlas, which was a great movie, though I'm sure one of the central themes is "no matter where you live, and what age you're living in, you have something in common with everyone else in all times and places: the world sucks."

All of the problems are prevalent because so many are selfish cruel jerks enjoying making things worse for everyone else.  All those against you are far more powerful than you and your allies will ever be.  And really, aren't they just making everything worse for themselves too? And yet they persist.

But what can you do? What is the alternative?

So roll with it. Grab the hand of the one you love, share knowing smiles with your friends, and say fuck it to the rest.  And you just might find your chance to carve out a nook of happy life.
Or not, but you have to try right?

In that vein, here's a touch of fun a friend of mine forwarded to me:

More here: 

http://www.fmx.de/media/2nd-trailer-fmx-2013.html

Now, someone needs to make some minis of these :)  Hmmm...

20 Questions of Questionable Importance & Interest

So a pair of constant wargame-blog entertainers, Ray & Angry Lurker decided to toss 20 questions at each other more or less related to wargaming and since they're encouraging everyone else to jump in I figured I might as well.  It's less painful than jumping off that bridge my mom kept asking if I'd jump off of if everyone else was doing it, so why not?

You probably are familiar with these two, if not you should visit their blogs- often.
Their bicker-banter is always entertaining. They work as guards at the same place, and so I tend to picture them thus:

But hearing their verbal sparring I think it's closer to this:

So, are the questions & my answers of interest or importance?  I don't know.. let's find out!

On to the Questions!

1.        Favorite Wargaming period and why?

* Very tough question.  There are so many I like and have interest in.  But if I must chose one I'd probably say 'Fantasy'.  Not technically a period, since it isn't historical, but I love the wide range of possibilities it offers. 

2.       Next period, money no object?

* Hmmm... well if you're going to tempt me... Medieval: Hundred Years War... complete with castles, towns, muddy ruins, siege equipment and everything. I've always wanted to do this period, but I'd want to research it all, get all the heraldry accurate- a huge investment in time. 

3.       Favorite 5 films?

* Not sure this is an exact order...

1. Last of the Mohicans

2. Lord of the Rings (all 3 counting as 1)

3. Henry V (Brannaugh version)

4. Harold & Maude

5. Bad Santa

4.       Favorite 5 TV series?

* Again, can't be possitive about the order... 

1. Battlestar Galactica (newer series)

2. Mystery Science Theater 3000

3. Game of Thrones

4. Lost

5. The Tudors

5.       Favorite book and author?

* Favorite series: J.R.R.Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings

* Favorite single book: George Orwell: 1984

6.       Greatest General? Can’t count yourself!!

* Not an easy question.  A lot of the 'greats' had overwhelming technological and resource advantages, like Ceasar... kind of stacking the deck in your favor before it starts. I'll give it to Ghenghis Khan. 

7.       Favorite Wargames rules?

* Not a 'wargame' per se, but I'll go with Blood Bowl!  Never get tired of this game!

8.       Favorite Sport and team?

* That's easy: None & None.  Just about no interest in sports and I'm philosophically opposed to professional sports. 

9.       If you had a only use once time machine, when and where would you go?

* As much as I'd like to go to over a thousand different time-spots in the past, if I could only use it once, I'd go to the future... how far? tough question... maybe 1250 years. I want to know how things turn out, but not so far that I'd be unable to understand anything.  maybe bring back a fusion battery and a 'history book' to make things better and rewrite the time line.

10.   Last meal on Death Row?

* Pepperoni pizza. Chocolate sundae for desert.  
 Although... if the bastards are going to kill me, maybe a massive pot of chili.  Kill me and I'm leaving a serious mess for you to clean up.  Serves 'em right. 

11.    Fantasy relationship and why?

* I'm living the fantasy! My girlfriend/fiancee/one-I'm-going-to-marry, however you'd like to phrase it, is hands-down the best woman for me I've ever known or could imagine.  Fun, funny, smart, beautiful, supportive, good, and 120% life concentrated down into one human.  
Cheesy or not, even in 'fantasy' I pick her. 

12.   If your life were a movie, who would play you?

* John Cusack.  Similar features and cadence of voice and slight reserved demeanor, and been told that's the celebrity closest in appearance more often than any other. And since it's pretty common that actors are better looking than the people they play, I won't feel bad about picking someone not bad looking.. if he can play Poe (there's a sorry mug) there's no issue with him playing me. 

13.   Favorite Comic  Superhero?

* I wasn't really into comic superheroes as a kid.  But I think Batman is the coolest.  No super powers, nothing magical or special, just will & cleverness. 

14.   Favorite Military quote?

"If you're going through Hell, keep going." - Winston Churchill.  

-I've drawn on that many times in my life. 

15.   Historical destination to visit?

* Someplace I haven't been yet... so I'll take the Pyramids. 

16.   Biggest Wargaming regret?

* That I didn't have a lot of money back in the late 80's... would love to have got a lot of old classic Citadel & Marauder minis, but at the time I was about as poor as one could be. 

17.   Favorite Fantasy job?

* Pay me to travel & write about it! 

18.   Favorite Song, Top 5?

* Again, not in any particular order... 

1.  Try a Little Tenderness - Otis Redding

2.  Baba O'Reily - The Who

3.  I'll Fall With Your Knife - Peter Murphy (see bottom of this blog entry) 

4.  Desert Rose - Sting

5.  Father & Son- Cat Stevens

19.   Favorite Wargaming Moment?

* Maybe 20 years ago now... Thanksgiving, my great friend Bill and I decided to have non-family Thanksgiving. We ordered Pizzas, there was an MST3K marathon on and we played a massive battle of Warhammer on the floor.  Best thanksgiving ever.  

20.   The miserable Git question, what upsets you?

* What doesn't?? ;) 

Well, top of the list....

1. Politicians, Lobbyists, the whole broken corrupt political system. 

2. Modern Media, Political Propaganda that passes as 'news' and the stupid public that cares about and thinks they have the right to know about stupid crap like 'sex scandals' and other meaningless trashertainment that only serves to allow the corrupt system from continuing to abuse and control us. 

3. Rap Music & Rap Culture. I was sure this was a fad in the 80's.  Damn. 

  -oh, and pull your damn pants up, you look like your mom smoked engine coolant when you were in the womb.

4. Pride in willful stupidity. 

5. Smoking.

6. Door to door religion pushers. 

7. Reality T.V. 

8.  Cold-call sales calls.  I'm sorry you have a shitty job, but not so sorry that I won't be rude to you if you aren't gracious when I say I'm not interested and am going to hang up now. 

9.  Asshole drivers.  Do you really need to endanger my life to get one car length ahead?  Saving yourself 2 seconds of time is not worth the risk of spending months in the hospital for you and others

10.  People who constantly pause in their speech by saying "know what I'm saying?" .. well, I know you're saying "know what I'm saying?" but since that isn't saying anything, no: why don't you actually tell me instead of asking? 

Enjoy!