Happy Holidays

 

 

For the handful of you that read this thing on a regular basis, Happy Holidays (and thank you!). I'm taking the rest of the year off, and will be back on 1/1 with this month's media recap.

If you follow the FB page, I'll be rerunning links to old posts about some of my favorite non-Star Wars Christmas toys. If you don't follow it, here's the links.

StarBird

Dark Tower

BigTrak

ROM, the Space Knight

Star Wars Uno

From the "I can't believe it took them this long" department, it's Star Wars Uno!

Also, I'm trying out my new photo box so please excuse any light reflections while I get used to it.

 

There's not much to say about Uno. You either know it or you don't. Prior to bringing this to Thanksgiving, I can't remember the last time I played.

 

 Surprisingly, the images on the cards feature more original trilogy characters than prequel or sequel. They could easily make a version for each trilogy if they wanted. Or Clone Wars. Or Rebels. Or The Mandalorian. 

The cards in this deck are smaller than your standard playing card. I guess to make it easier for little hands to hold.

Every licensed version of Uno has a Wild card that is unique to it. Star Wars has the Force Wild (bottom right). When you play it, you choose a player then call your color. That player has to show you their hand and if they have your color, they draw two. I was able to put one to good use after someone played their own Wild and called Uno. I played the Force Wild and named the color they just changed it to and they had to draw two more cards.

As I mentioned, it's been awhile since I've looked at a new Uno deck. Looks like the current ones are being as language friendly as possible by no longer printing any words on the cards like Skip, Draw, or Reverse. This leads me to my one minor gripe, which could also apply to the standard version for all I know: the Draw 4 Wild.

They did next to nothing to indicate this card is a Wild, aside from giving it the same black background. When you've got new, or re-learning, players it would definitely help if this card had the Wild symbol on it.

Nightmare Before Christmas - Making Christmas Funko Card Game

 If you've even glanced at the board game section of your local big box store, chances are you've seen at least one game put out by Funko. They do games now, because of course they do! From Funkoverse strategy board games to Disney attractions and other movie franchises, they are just cranking them out.

Since it's the holiday season (and I love the movie!), we're having some fun with Making Christmas, the third Funko game based on The Nightmare Before Christmas.

 

This was actually released a couple months ago and me being me, I pre-ordered it as soon as I saw it. This is a family card game for ages 6+ so it's fairly simple to play.

Among the game components are four pieces you assemble to make the toy workbench play area. The back of it features the artwork from the box.

Gather toys from Halloweentown for Jack Skellington to deliver on Christmas. But the presents are in pieces! Look for clever combos on the workbench that will help you put the toys together. On your turn, swap two toy parts and use assembled toys to complete goal cards. Then refill the workbench, goal cards, and the toy-building continues to the next player! Hurry to put the toy parts together and be the player that completes the most goals to win!

The goal cards are on the left and you score them by swapping two cards, either two on the board already or with one from your hand, to make a complete toy. Some goals, like the top one, only require you to make a horizontal or vertical match. Do that, and you get to make a second swap to try and complete another goal. When the last goal is completed, the player with the most goals wins.

Like I said, it's not a very deep game but seems like it'd be perfect for younger monsters or just some quick holiday fun. The artwork is perfectly spot on and the goal cards feature different residents of Halloweentown. 

 

The Funko board games are pretty easy to find but the card games have been hit or miss for me. If you don't want to hunt for this one, you can have Santa Jack drop it down your chimney via Amazon (affiliate link).

Monthly Media Recap - November 2021

 If you know this blog, you know the first of December usually kicks off the 13 Days of Creepmas. After 10 years, and waning participation, we've decided not to do an "official" Creepmas blog-along this year but that's no reason you can't keep the spooky seasonal spirit alive!

This post contains Amazon affiliate links which I earn from when things are purchased. Don't want any of these flicks? Still need to do some holiday shopping? Please use the Amazon and/or EE links to the right and look for what you want.

Streaming Series

The Movies That Made Us S3(2021, Netflix)
Behind the Monsters (2021, Shudder)
Two very similar, but different, series looking behind the scenes at some of the most popular horror movie franchises. Each has something a little different to offer and to be honest, having watched them close together they're all kind of blurred up in my brain. The Shudder series looks more at the franchise while the Netflix on is more focused on how it came to be.

Tiger King S2 (2021, Netflix)
Burned through this pretty quick and was definitely wanting more. I feel like they rushed this to get it out while S1 is still somewhat fresh. I know this is "real life" but it only felt like half a season as far as there being a story.

Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life (2016, Netflix)
(Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer - each a 90 minute TV movie)
Picking up 10 years after the series finale, I always find this kind of thing a little weird. It's like going to a school reunion, seeing your old friends and there's that thing where you know them but they're not quite the same. Familiar but a little weird until you get back into the old groove. It was good the original writer came back to wrap things up.