I got this deck recently from a Kickstarter campaign so I thought I'd show it off.
There were two decks available, Egyptian and Aztec. Nothing against the Aztecs, I've just always been drawn to Egyptian hieroglyphs. Sure, Aztecs have some cool temples and human sacrifice but you think Egypt and it's all pyramids, tombs, treasure, and mummies. Maybe I just watched too many monster movies on Saturday afternoons as a kid.
I like the deck but I would have preferred something more dynamic. Sometimes I feel like I'm looking at the equivalent of Egyptian clip art. Then again, maybe I'm missing the point of what this is supposed to be.
The one thing that I am not a fan of in this deck are the Jacks. The horizontal artwork being mirrored on the cards just doesn't feel right.
And the Queen of Diamonds...I can't tell what all is going on there. I think she and her King are a little too busy in their art and my eye doesn't know where it should be going.
I feel like I've done a lot of complaining about this deck but I really do like it! The Aces are fantastic, I like the font used, and the cards all have a sandy background to them adding to the desert feel.
My favorite thing about the Kickstarter was being able to add this pair of dice to my reward. They look even better in person!
This past weekend we went to check out the annual Revere Beach International Sand Sculpting Festival. Whew! Quite a mouthful. As you might guess from the name, this event is held every year and people from around the world come to show off their sculpting skills. It's not just about the contest, there's also plenty of food trucks and carnival-like food stands, there's even a Ferris wheel!
Fun fact: Revere Beach is the country's first public beach.
I've gone to this a handful of times and it never stops amazing me. The artists put in untold hours to create something that will only last a few days. Crazy!
The sand part takes place on the beach (duh) and they close off part of the street that runs along side for all the street fair type stuff. We went later in the day thinking the crowds would be smaller. We were wrong!
What is normally a 15-20 minute drive took close to an hour!
I've been to comic conventions that have easier crowds to get through.
Pardon the security fences in my shots. It used to be setup so that you could go right up to the fence and be able to shoot over/through it.
The artists are usually given a topic or theme for the contest but this year they were given total freedom to do anything they wanted so there were some interesting entries. Each one has a sign next to it with the artist and title of the work. I didn't take photos of them so most of these I don't have the actual names for.
This one is called The Raven & The Frog. Obviously that's Poe on the left but I have no idea who The Frog is supposed to be.
This one of Shiva was my favorite of the day. It just looks like something you'd find in an ancient temple carved from stone.
This was my second favorite. A broken time piece being held by a skeleton. You can see part of the skull on the left and the fingers curling around the back of the watch. I suppose maybe it's sinking into the sand and its time is up?
Here's a close-up of the watch so you can see what crazy detail was put into the gears.
And the award for creepiest work goes to this giant sleeping baby.
This one was Mrs. Dex's favorite. It's called "A Nouveau Love". It took 5th place overall and also won the fan's choice vote. There's a lot of fine detail there!
"Vanishing Muse" took 1st place and was created by a guy from Moscow.
Every year there is an enormous center piece that spotlights all the sponsors of the event. This one is themed around kids books. Way over on the right is Humpty Dumpty. A bit to his left is The Cat in the Hat and just behind the Cat is the Fish. On the left of the castle is Jack climbing a bean stalk and opposite him is a caterpillar, maybe a very hungry one?
They're hard to see but atop the left part of the wall you'll need to Make Way for Ducklings. The story takes place in Boston and there's a statue in the Boston Public Gardens that's pretty well known.
Also hard to see is a water jet! If you look on the left where the gates connect you can kind of see it. There was one on each side of the castle and they would occasionally spritz the gathered crowd taking photos. It was pretty funny!
There's a handful more pics on Flickr where you'll be able to view them in a larger format.
Or you can flip through the slideshow below.
Ready 2 Robot is the latest blind toy series from MGA featuring over 25 different robots all with interchangeable parts. MGA also makes the Awesome Little Green Men I looked at back in January.
Let me tell you, I haven't had so much fun just getting and opening a toy! I wish I had the patience to make a video because words and pics just don't do the experience justice. There are a few YouTube videos if you'd rather watch instead of read. I happened across these at Target recently and had to Google them to find out what they were. The store display is fantastic and caught my attention.
It's sort of like a gashapon, or capsule toy, dispenser. The whole thing is gravity fed. You pull one of the yellow tabs and it pops out a capsule like in the first photo. Since these are all blind packed, you don't know what you're going to get. And of course, being blind packed, there is an ultra-rare chase robot that lights up.
Each capsule contains robot parts (torso, 2 arms, 2 legs, 2 weapons) and a pilot. Once you remove the outer wrapper, this is what you get. LEGO spaceman for scale.
If you look at the front right of the capsule, you'll see each segment is numbered 01-04. That's the order you open them in. Each section has a few bagged pieces that you assemble into your robot. After you've taken everything out, you can flip the 01 section to use it as a display stand. There are little tabs built in so you can interlock multiple bases.
The robot is very easy to put together. The torso has multiple socket holes where you can connect any piece with it's little ball joint. Want to swap the arms and legs? I'm not going to stop you, it's your robot.
Here is the pilot that comes in its own little slime pod.
The slime is great! It's all gooey like slime should be but it's not very wet. I was able to extract the pilot pretty easily and peel the slime off. It didn't leave any kind of residue on the figure. The slime will also basically disintegrate if dropped in really hot water.
Here's the robot, Kill Switch, all assembled. For the record, the pilot's name is Clubb. The black band over his head is actually headphones, not a helmet.
You can see the pilot is not very big in relation to the LEGO minifig but has a pretty good amount of detail for being so tiny. There are little pegs in the cockpit that go into holes in the pilot's feet to keep them "seated." It's hard to tell in the photo but the bot body is black metalflake meaning it's got shiny bits in it sort of like car paint.
In addition to the holes for the arms, legs, and weapons, the back has four more holes for attaching things. All the robot parts are interchangeable so you can get crazy with it if you get multiple robots, or accessory packs!
Here's the other one I picked up. (You can't just pick up one of a new toy line, they need buddies!) This is Lowlife with pilot Bootlick. At first I thought he was a crazy baby. The nose ring looks like a pacifier from far away! The bot should have another missile launcher but I don't know if I accidentally threw it out or if it wasn't there to begin with.
The Bot Brawler capsules retail for around $10. It's a little pricey for a blind packed toy but I think there are enough in the series that you shouldn't get a duplicate too soon. I haven't found anything other than these capsules but there is more to the line.
Survivor Battle Packs come with 2 bots (one you can see, one hidden) and a weapon accessory that actually shoots something. Bot Blaster Packs have a hidden bot and a visible minibot that shoots something. And there's also a Pilots Pack which has 4 slime capsules, each with a pilot.
You can hit the Ready 2 Robot site and see some animated webisodes, get more info on the bots and pilots, and view the checklist that comes in each package.
I really like these toys! There's quite a variety to the types of robots and the pilots all have their own personality to them. Hopefully they'll be around for awhile.
