Once Upon a Geek

The Battlestar Galactica Colorforms Adventure Set Deluxe Edition was released in 1978.  I remember playing with these and other Colorforms sets for hours and hours.  Somewhere along the line I lost my BSG Colorforms, but my good buddy Ravenface was kind enough to supply me with a set he bought in a garage sale back in the late 1990s.  I think he got it for $1.  Nowadays you can find them online with prices ranging from $23 – $36.

What a gorgeous cover!  I used to have a poster of that image!  Loved it!  The set is huge too – the box measures 12.5″ x 15.5″.  Above you can see the exterior of the box with the quote, “Create exciting scenes from BATTLESTAR GALACTICA with Coloforms plastic that Sticks like Magic.  Can be used over and over again. Never wears out.”  I don’t know about “never”, but 30 yahrens later and they still sort-of stick.  However, the typographical error on the box cover is driving me mad!  On the fourth line the word “Sticks” is capitalized.  There is no reason for that!  Arrgghhh!  The proofing Nazi in me is unforgiving.  With that said, my grammar is terrible, so I really can’t fault them.

Below you’ll see the interior of the set.  I always loved the booklet as  kid.  You could see example play-scenes and other available products.  In this booklet they are advertising: Mickey Mouse, Snoopy, Ernie & Bert, Cookie Monster, Barbie, Holly Hobbie, Batman, and Raggedy Ann.  There is also a note to the parents worth repeating:

To the Parent – Colorforms’ toys help your child develop and improve these six important skills: 1) Finger dexterity, 2) Sense of spatial relationship, 3) Size matching, 4) Building ability, 5) Color Sense, and 6) Sense of neatness and order.

Who knew we were learning while having fun?!?!?

Here is a close-up of the yellow Colorforms.  The dork in me can easily recognize the characters.  I’m pretty confident that is Baltar, Cassiopeia, and Apollo.

Close-up of the blue Colorforms.  Clearly the Cylons.  I like their big meaty helmets.

Here we’ve got Athena, Muffit the Daggit, and Starbuck.  I’m pretty sure this one is Starbuck based upon the longer hair and the cape.  It’s possilbe that I’ve got Apollo and Starbuck backwards, but does anyone but me really care that much?

Here we’ve got Boxy and Ovion bug monsters from the casino on Carillon.

And finally, here is the playset depicting one of the greatest moments of Battlestar Galactica.  It’s the … It’s the… Escape from Hoth?  WTF?  I have no idea what this setting is supposed to be.  Turrets and a crazy looking X-Wing fighter?  Maybe someone from the 20th Century Fox studio got drunk and barged into the Universal City Studios Colorforms department.  Yeah, that’s makes sense.

There are those who believe that life here began out there, far across the universe, with tribes of humans who may have been the forefathers of the Egyptians, or the Toltecs, or the Mayans. Some believe that there may yet be brothers of man who even now fight to survive somewhere beyond the heavens…

I finally got my copy of the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space Roleplaying Game, and turns out I’m in it!  Well… I’m not exactly IN the game, but I am mentioned in the credits and some of my playtesting group’s contributions made it into the game!  Sorry to subject you to what follows.  I’m not trying to brag, I’m just sharing my excitement!  Here is a picture of me going all Gollum with my new prize.

I’ve only just started flipping through the set, but I gotta say this is a truly gorgeous game!  Each book has glossy, full-color pages.  There are several loose character sheets, each printed on heavy-cardstock.  There are punch-out cardboard tokens for Story Points.  It’s just well put together and beautiful.  For a video walk-thru of the box set contents click here.  For a seven-page PDF preview of The Player’s Guide, click here.  I’ve only scratched the surface of the contents and can’t wait to read it cover-to-cover.  For now though, here are a few things I’ve noticed that relate to my playtesting group…

CREDITS

Here are the credits listed on the inside cover of The Player’s Guide.

And a close up on the Playtester’s paragraph…

Hooray!  My thanks to Cubicle 7 for the shout-out!  My group, called THE UNIQUE GEEKS, consisted of Sterling, SGhoul, Scott C, Shavenger, and myself.  We read through early drafts of the rules, ran a few adventures, and created lots of characters and gadgets.  Then provided feedback to Cubicle 7 on all of this.  I’m happy to say some of our contributions made it into the final draft!  Now, I hope I’m not breaking some unspoken playtester rule by talking about which contributions were from my group.  If so, I deeply apologize to the almighty playtester gods and humbly offer to sacrifice myself on the altar of the omniscient 20-sider.  Additionally, I’m not trying to take anything away from David F. Chapman or the folks at Cubicle 7.  They’ve created a great game and deserve to be praised for everything they did.  They did all the heavy-lifting creating the game from scratch, we just came along and piggybacked on their ideas and made a few suggestions.  I’m honored to have been invited to the playtest and honored that the folks at Cubicle 7 thought some of our suggestions were good enough to include.

GADGETS

For one particular adventure, I developed four different gadgets.  Gadgets are unique devices or tools characters carry with them for specific purposes.  While going through the new box set, I was blown away as I stumbled across two gadgets I created printed right next to the Sonic Screwdriver and Psychic Paper!  Wow!  I created the “Engineer’s Mate” and the “Engram Eraser”, both shown below.  Click the image to enlarge.  I created these gadgets for an earlier draft of the rules, so some of the stats have changed since I came up with the concepts.  However, the gadget name, traits, and purpose remain the same.  My compliments to whoever wrote the descriptive paragraph.  They did a great job taking the idea and explaining it succinctly and effectively.  Nicely done!

You can’t tell from this scan, but each gadget on the page below is perforated so you can pop them out of the page!  So cool!

TRAITS

One of the areas we provided lots of feedback and suggestions on was “Traits”.  I’ve noticed looking over the new box set that several of the “Traits” we suggested have been incorporated.  Now it’s quite possible that several other playtesters suggested the same particular “Traits” that we did, so I’m not claiming that we’re solely responsible for these.  “Traits” we suggested that appear in the final game include: Sense of Direction, Animal Friendship, Owed Favour, Unattractive, Owes Favour, Argumentative, Dark Secret, Impulsive, and Selfish.  Again, my compliments to whoever wrote the lengthy descriptions for each of these.  We just shared a germ of an idea from a game mechanic perspective, whereas someone at Cubicle 7 beautifully wrapped explanations and examples around it.

That’s it for now.  I’m going to take a deep-dive into these books and savor every detail!  In fact, I may be so wrapped up in this game that I fail to post here for a few days. 

After more than a decade in the attic, we decided to give the old Star Trek: The Next Generation collectible card game a try.  Ed’s in town this weekend (pictured below in his “Nerd Herd” t-shirt from the TV series Chuck) and he decided we should tackle the game again after all these years. After procrastinating for hours, we finally cracked the decks sometime after midnight. Needless to say, this is not a game you can simply jump right into without reviewing the rules closely.  I cleaned Ed’s clock (or Romulan Outpost in this case) and we called it quits after one game.

Below is Ed building his inferior Romulan/Klingon deck.

Here I am trying to remember the rules after something like 14 years.  I suppose we could have bothered to read them before playing, but that would have taken all the fun out of it.  And we discovered we’re getting too old to sit on the floor for very long.

Finally, in going through my old cards we re-affirmed how insanely geeky I really am.  We came across two custom cards I produced myself for the game.   Check them out below.  I color-copied images, then literally cut-and-pasted them together.  Also, it appears I used my old Commodore 64 dot matrix printer for the text boxes.  How frikkin’ hilarious!  I’m such a dork!   As Ed has pointed out, he proclaimed my dorkiness long before these cards were stumbled upon.

Live long and geek out!

Great weekend coming up!  Lots of folks coming into town, including Ed, Serv, and Lore (the irredeemable brother).  In case you are wondering, the random picture above represents things we’ll probably get up to this weekend.  The new Star Trek DVD will most likely be watched (love the Enterprise shaped DVD case).  Lore and I will likely battle wits in a thrilling game of Bananagrams.  Ed wants to dust off our Star Trek: The Next Generation collectible cards from the mid-90s and give it a go again.  And the stuffed R2-D2 is there to represent all the Star Wars chatting that will go on with Serv.

In case you’re wondering, yes that is an original 1977 R2-D2 stuffed animal.  What can I say… I don’t throw things away.

I can’t make this kind of stuff up.  Here is an advertisement for “Cube Lube” that ran in DC Comics cover dated June 1982.  Though I understand the intention is innocent, I find it hard to believe this ran in a comic book targeted at children.

Today we’ll be looking at the Monopoly Justice League of America Collector’s Edition from 1999.  This was a great piece produced by USAOPOLY representing the Silver Age Justice League.  The premise of the game is identical to Monopoly, the difference being simply in what things are called.  Instead of the properties being named after places in Atlantic City, they are named after Justice League member’s abilities.  For example, instead of “Boardwalk” and “Park Place”, you have “Strength of Steel” and “Heat Vision”.

Below is the box cover.

Below is a shot of the game board and the insert explaining the characters.  To see all the properties, click the image below to enlarge (big image – 1.4 MB).

Below is the bank, some of the Title Deed cards (called “Power Cards” in this edition), the “Chance” and “Community Chest” cards, a reprint of The Brave and the Bold #28 (the first appearance of the Justice League of America), and the instructions.

Below are the replacement Utilities cards.  Instead of the “Electric Company”, you have “Green Lantern’s Power Battery”.  Instead of “Water Works”, you have “Aquaman’s City of Atlantis”.

Below are the replacement Railroad cards.  In this set you’ve got: Flash’s “The Cosmic Treadmill”, Green Arrow’s “The Arrowplane”, Batman’s “The Batmobile”, and Wonder Woman’s “Invisible Jet Plane”.

Below is a shot of the player tokens and the houses/hotels.  In this edition, green houses are replaced by blue “Powers”, and red hotels are replaced by red “Super Powers”.

Here is another shot of the pewter player tokens.  They include (from L to R): Superman, Green Lantern, Batman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Flash, and Green Arrow.

Here is a better shot of the “Powers” and “Super Powers” pieces.  You can see the star on the blue pieces, and you can see the Justice League of America logo on the red pieces.

Here is the JLA currency for the game.  Poor Martian Manhunter, everyone else got a bill except him.  Maybe he’s on the three dollar bill.

The orange “Daily Planet” cards replace “Chance” in this edition.

Below are some of my favorite “Daily Planet” cards.  There are tons more, these are just the ones I chose to feature.

The yellow “Batcomputer” cards replace “Community Chest” in this edition.

Below are some of my favorite “Batcomputer” cards.  There are tons more, these are just the ones I chose to feature.  It’s interesting that Hawkman and the Atom managed to sneak into the game on these cards.

What a cool version of Monopoly!  It definitely puts a fun spin on the game for us comic geeks.

I’m closing out my DragonCon 2009 coverage with my favorite costume photos. Some have been shown here previously, but they bear repeating. To see all of my DragonCon photos, be sure to visit my Flickr page. If you have a favorite costume that I left out, be sure to mention it in the comments. A small handful of these photos were taken by folks other than me. In those cases, I’ve linked to their original photo.

A really great Bumblebee from “Transformers”

These ladies were having a blast in their gender-bender “Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band” costumes.  They were totally in character and so were the screaming fans!

Cookie Monster Michael Jackson.  Really funny, but is it too soon?

The Convention Vixens return to DragonCon.  You can find more on the ConVixens by clicking here.

Star Wars Jedi impaling a Clone Trooper.  This was a really neat and creative costume.  The lightsaber was connected to the trooper on both sides and was lit up.  Impressive, most impressive.

A really good Snake Eyes from “GI Joe”

Is this the future of Marvel Comics now that they’ve been bought by Disney?

The Ghostbusters!  This group won the Hall Costume Contest for Best Movie Group.  The detail on their costumes is amazing!

The popularity of the new “Star Trek” film inspired quite a few simple, yet effective costumes.

The most in character group at the convention! Tony Stark (from “Iron Man”), his assistant Pepper, and his security guards.  Tony was dead-on and never broke character. The security guards actually frisked anyone who wanted their picture with Tony.  Pepper was sure to inquire if you had an appointment.  Brilliant!

The most creative costume at the convention in my opinion.  The two-person AT-AT from “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back”!

With the popularity of the “Blackest Night” comic book this year, there were quite a few different Lantern Corps represented.  Here is a member of the Sinestro Corps…

… and here is a member of the Red Lantern Corps.

A really great Supergirl!

The second most creative costume at the convention in my opinion.  He perfectly captured Peter Parker’s Spider-Sense tingling from the comics.

An astonishing “Doctor Who” look-a-like.  Several people were doing double-takes to ensure it wasn’t really David Tennant.

An impressive Catwoman from the “Batman Returns” film.

Spaceman Spiff from “Calvin & Hobbes”.  Notice the stuffed tiger on his shoulder!

“Watchmen” – Thankfully Doctor Manhattan went for the briefs, rather than what was shown in the movie.

Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld

An impressive Silver Surfer from “Fantastic Four 2″

A really well done “Barbarella”

If you’ve never seen “Logan’s Run”, then go rent it right now.

A recreation of the famous picture taken in Times Square at the end of World War II

Really clever way to represent the video game “Mario Cart”

The Harry Potter/Hogwarts bad-girl thing continues to be popular.  Understandably.

Remember, the Visitors are our friends.

A really obscure Boba Fett costume from Star Wars.  This particular version of the costume was only used in his first appearance in the animated portion of the 1978 televised “Star Wars Holiday Special”.  Like I said… really obscure, but also really neat that someone took the time to make this particular variation.

An eight-foot Sasquatch from the Alpha Flight comic book!

A fun Stormtrooper variant in the parade – the Indianapolis Colts Trooper!

And finally Max from “Where the Wild Things Are”.  This young lady was having a blast hopping around as Max!  She mentioned that lots of people didn’t know what her costume was supposed to be.  That surprised me, but I guess they’ll all figure it out next year after the movie comes out.

Assuming all is well with air travel, I should be in Atlanta this morning!!! Me and 30,000 of my closest friends all weekend long! Dragon*Con is the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the US.  It’s the 6th largest convention in the city of Atlanta, has over 500 guests (actors, authors, artists, bands, etc),  and offers over 2,750 hours of panels, seminars, demonstrations, and workshops. Check out the DragonCon website for details on the event!

Below are a few snapshots from Dragon*Con 2008.  I typically take about 400 pictures each event.  While these aren’t really the best quality shots, they do give you an idea of some the diverse things going on.

Click here to view all my Dragon*Con photos on Flickr.  Also, for some of my favorite Dragon*Con shots click here and click here.  Finally, you can read about my 2008 Dragon*Con exploits by clicking here, here, here and here.

Shag and Captain America.  Check out my t-shirt.  Eat that, Steve Rogers!

Shag and Iron Man.  Again with the t-shirt backing up Tony Stark’s Civil War position.

Gareth David Lloyd & James Marsters from the Torchwood panel

Comic writer Peter David

Comic writer Mike Baron

The Convention Vixens

You never know who you’ll run into at Dragon*Con.  Race and Serv with Axl Rose.  … yeah, right.

The Unique Geek Board of Directors dinner

Iron Man!

Adam West and the Batmobile in the parade

Speed Racer’s Mach 5 in the parade

This Marvel vs. DC shot shows you just a tiny fraction of comic book costumes to be found at Dragon*Con

Talk with you sometime next week.  Assuming I recover.  

One Week Until Dragon*Con 2009!!!

‘Nuff Said.

Today’s post is a bit morbid, but something we all have to think about eventually.  None of us really want to face it, but the truth of the matter is that the ONLY guarantee in life is that it’s going to end someday.  Once you accept that you’re gonna go no matter what, then you can decide how you wanna do it.  I don’t mean choose the circumstances of your death, but you can at least choose what happens to the body you leave behind.

If Michael Jackson can have a fancy coffin, why shouldn’t we?  In fact, we should proudly display our geekiness into the afterlife!  Here is a selection of geeky coffins I’ve found on the internet.  Kinda makes you think about your options, doesn’t it?

Below is a Star Trek themed casket and urn.  The casket’s styling was inspired by Spock’s photon-torpedo-casket in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.  Oops, I guess that’s a spoiler.  My bad.  Spock died, in case you didn’t hear about it back in 1982.  You can order your Star Trek casket and urn from Eternal Image.

The next four coffins come from T3 where they mocked-up a few different ones they’d like to see designed.  They were inspired by Creative Coffins, an environmentally-friendly company that promises to create almost any design from the dignified and beautiful to the quirky or humorous.

Below is one for all the folks who got injured by their Wii strap.  Should have kept it old school.

I don’t think you’ll be respawning after climbing into this one below.

Do you believe that violent video games can lead to real-life violence, and possibly death? Then below is the coffin for you!

For all you iPhone addicts, below is the final app.

And if you can’t afford the monthly plan on the iPhone coffin, then Nokia has one that might fit your budget.  You can see the one below and more unusual Ghana coffins over at eShopAfrica.com.

Well, we’ve seen the iPhone coffin from Apple, so of course there has to be a PC coffin.  The coffin below is for the techie in your life that never knows when to turn off the computer.  You can find more bizarre Windows-powered devices at Techeblog.com.

If you know me at all, you’d probably think this next coffin is the one for me.  This is the actual coffin for a die hard Doctor Who fan that died earlier this summer.

Even though I really like the TARDIS coffin above, I think I’d rather hold out for the one below.  Okay, this isn’t a coffin, it’s a desk.  However, if you applied the same concept to a coffin it would be brilliant!  What better way to go than in a block of carbonite!  At least you’d be perfectly preserved.  And you’d make a nice wall ornament too.  You can see more about the desk over at Tom Spina Designs.

My thanks to Ron over at THE UNIQUE GEEK listserv for inspiring today’s post.

Just a reminder: There’s still time to enter the contest to win one of five copies of The Wolverine Files hardcover! No gimmicks, no strings attached.  Just a chance to win a cool book for free!  Click here for details.  Contest ends Wednesday, August 5th.