Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace

So the son and I watched Ep 1 yesterday-- the daughter was grounded, so she will be catching up on Friday. Anyway, I went in as open minded as I could. I didn't let my opinions cloud my son's judgment, and I thought maybe I was simply playing into the conventional wisdom about how bad the movie was. But no. It really is a genuinely bad movie. It has genuinely terrible dialogue at times. Ah well. My son knew all the names of everything from reading (and rereading) a Visual Dictionary I have. Especially during the underwater scenes. As they enter the water, he says, "Ah, that's the Water Breather 99!" or some such. A monster appears, "That's the Sando." I was on the verge of laughter! He seemed to enjoy the movie, and didn't seem to think it was any better or worse than any of the others he had seen (IV-VI).

Friggin' Star Wars

My kids have been on a big Star Wars kick lately, and I've bought them some of the Collectible Miniatures. You may recall that I bought a bunch of these a while back. There is now a fixed Obi-Wan in a starter, so I picked that up, too. Well, my son got a Reek in his pack and was about to wet himself wanting to play with it, so I sat down and rumbled with my 7 year old son.

The Fun in Star Wars

My 7 year old son recently reached a nice reading goal at school, and I rewarded him by renting Star Wars for him. I have never seen such gratitude from my son, who leaped onto me while thanking me profusely. Now, those that know me know that I am absolutely no fan of George Lucas. In fact, I could be characterized at times as actively hostile. However, I refrained from poisoning my son's opinion, and let him and his sister watch it. It's really been great to see them enjoying it. They know of Anakin Skywalker and know that he's Luke's father, and they know that Darth Vader killed Anakin...but they don't KNOW. I'm going to get ESB very soon so that none of their friends spoil it for them. My son is currently in his room, playing the Star Wars theme on his stereo too loudly and singing along with it (dunh dunh dunh duuuuuunh duuunh, dunh dunh dunh DUUUUUUUNH duuunh...) and laying in the floor playing with my old old Star Wars figures...from when I was just about his age... Anyway, it's not that I can't enjoy playing with Star Wars figures, too.

5150 Star Wars

Here are the 5150 rules for Star Wars I wrote up with input from my buddy Mik. It's mostly from ANH and ESB as those are the figures I have. I'd love to have any additions you come up with, as I probably won't stat up anymore than this since this covers most of my figures. After watching Clone Wars, though, I could see myself getting clone trooper and droid forces down the line... Anyway, you can see some pictures here of some playtest games Mik and I played.

5150 Star Wars

Here are some pictures from our 5150 Star Wars games last night. We're working on some rules we'll put out soon.

Why Pre-Painted Figures Will Dominate

Really, if we were able to look at the sales across all the pre-painted manufacturers, they may well dominate already, and here's why. For just over $100.00, I bought a substantial amount of figures, had them shipped to me, and will be running a game with them tomorrow. From purchase to play in about a week for about $1.00 a figure. You just can not beat that. I don't think they're going to drive the unpainted market out of business, as it certainly does not provide the same feeling of accomplishment or enjoyment that I get from painting and creating. However, considering it would have taken me, realistically, two years to have painted all these by myself, assuming I even finished, it opens up areas of marginal interest, like Star Wars for me. I would never have devoted the amount of time it would have taken to paint all these figures up, I'm just not that interested in Star Wars. But, hey, if $115.00 buys me enough figures to sit down and play with my son and my friends, who like Star Wars more than me, well, I'm going to do that.

Star Wars Miniatures Singles

I bought some more Star Wars singles (PRE 10/1, of course) from Dragon Justice. They had good prices, cheap shipping and great service. Recommended.

Star Wars Tatooine Terrain Pictures

There very inspirational pictures were part of an eBay auction a couple of years ago. A buddy turned out to have saved them, with the name of Mos Abra. It is a very creative and well assembled "Mos Eisley"-style Tatooine town done almost completely out of styrofoam packaging material.