Mantic To Make Mars Attacks? Nice

Ok, I know this has already been reported in a few places, but I got wind of this earlier and finally got a chance to look into it. I'm pretty stoked, and I am not even really a fan of Mars Attacks! I am a fan of Mantic, though, so maybe that's it. It is nice to see them expanding, even though I know it comes at the expense of some other big game companies.

Is your tabletop ready to be invaded?  The Topps Company and Mantic Games have joined forces to bring MARS ATTACKS to life as a miniature-based tabletop war-game!  Combining high quality sculpted figures with fast and fun tactical gameplay, Mantic will deliver an exciting new dimension to the resurgent sci-fi property.

See the full release from Mantic. My experience with Mantic games has been positive. Period. Good products, good value, and no bs from them. I'm really looking forward to this game, which is slated for early 2014.

Clone Wars Stuff I Forgot Was In My Desk At Work!

Yeah, so all of this stuff got bought at the store across from my office. It sat in the desk drawers for some time, then when my desk got moved around, rather than pack all of my stuff and unpack it at the new place, I brought a lot of my toys and junk home. So, it came to pass that all of these guys were chilling in a plastic shopping back in my garage when the Star Wars bug swung back around.

Flamethrower Trooper. These guys are from the second battle of Geonosis. You know, the episode with the excellent Geonosian Zombies? He had a cool flamethrower that constantly tipped him over, which is probably in that aforementioned bag still. This is just a repaint of the Captain Rex cold weather gear, which I never bought, though I wish I had.

Pre Vizsla. I bought the only one of these I ever saw on the peg. I seem to have misplaced his jetpack, but no biggie since it never stayed on anyway. Of more concern is the fact that I believe he came with the darksaber, which great gramma Shae would have grabbed from the temple. If that's the case, I kind of want to go back through the garage and see if it turns up.

Snowtrooper. Oops, so the title's a little erroneous, as this is not a clone wars fig, but since this is one of the first of the original trilogy figures I had which was retconned to be a Jango clone, it feels right to include him.

They never did get a real good Jango sculpt, and this one is no exception. In addition to being undersize to fit the helmet, he rather looks like Ramathorn from Super Troopers.

Clone Wars Anakin Skywalker

Well, maybe it's weird, but this is the first version of Anakin I've owned (other than Vader, of course, I've had plenty of him!). What can I say, I like the cartoon version of Anakin more than the film portrayal. Because I was so late to the game on this one, I got the version where he is not wearing his trademark Clone Wars era Jedi shoulder armor. Oh well, while I did like that look, this is not a deal breaker. Essentially this is cartoon EP III Skywalker.

He does come with a gimmick, but since it's not attached to his weapon or person, you can take or leave it. It's a disc launcher, with the disc sculpted to look like a twirling lightsaber. Neat idea, but does Anakin throw his lightsaber ever? I mean, I guess he did as Vader that one time in EP VI, but I didn't know it was a hallmark move or something.

Long story short, this is a well sculpted, well painted figure. He has the cloth tunic hem, for some reason, which is nice, but largely unnecessary. The neat thing about the stylized features of the cartoon versions of these characters is that they sculpt very well, meaning the likeness is just about spot on.

Clone Wars Master Plo Koon

When Star Wars D20 second edition came out right after Attack Of The Clones, and Kel Dor became a character race, the first thing I did was roll up a Kel Dor soldier. Because a guy who has to essentially wear a space suit everywhere he goes amuses me. It's the same reason I like playing Quarians.

I don't even remember this character's name, but I have always wanted an action figure recreation of him. The problem being, of course, that every Kel Dor action figure has been Plo Koon in various versions of his Jedi Garb. Well, problem solved! This is Plo in his cold weather gear. You know...from that episode where they go to the cold planet? Right, I don't remember it either. It must have been in season two or something.

But anyway. Plo comes with a cool cold weather outfit, ice crampons for his shoes (which actually make him stand pretty well), a different removable facemask, and a lightsaber. I might give him a sci-fi looking gun to replace the saber, because my old Kel Dor soldier would have no truck with ancient weapons and hokey religions.

All Things Fett Hits 500k. Big Things

Hey all, Counterfett here. Well, it happened over the weekend at long last. All Things Fett crossed the 500,000 hits mark. That's half a million, baby! Also, we've stayed pretty constant at the 189 mark on followers. This means I am still getting new readers at about 1 every two weeks, as bloggers are always dropping off as their google accounts close/change/get deleted. Sometimes I see the count go down, then back up, and it's someone who was already a reader, so I know this is what the up and down is from.

In any event, arbitrary landmarks aside, I am honored for all the time my loyal readers have spent with me in the past 5 years in these wonderful adventures. Thanks so much!

I do have some big plans for stuff that I will be doing, and I'm trying to make sure I still devote the time to this project and balancing the other areas of my life. Between this, my full time (+) job, commuting, kids, trying to exercise, and gaming, it can be a bit of a juggling act. Never fear, I will continue to deliver mediocre quality content, and lots of it! It's been a fun ride, and I hope you all have had a blast too!

Clone Wars Aqua Droid

I've wanted to get the Aqua droid for an awful long time. Now I wish I had got it back when they were cheaper! Nothing to it, though. I have been on this Star Wars kick for a little bit, and I figured there were only going to be so many more times that I would find one of these guys, so I went ahead and picked it up.

I had heard that they had trouble with standing, due to being top-heavy, spindly legs, ape arms, etc. this is not the case, however, on my example. He stands fine with or without the stand. Your mileage may vary on this point, however.

His paint is crisp and clean, and while his arm mounted blaster cannon is a bit wavy from the plastic backing, none of his other parts were affected. I am quite pleased with this figure. I'm in the midst of snapping up as many Clone Wars figures as I can before the line goes away entirely. Good times.

This is also from the era when all of the Star Wars figures came with the Galactic Battle Game. So he comes with a card and special die. I might actually try to play this with one of my kids and justify buying this many toys. We shall see.

Painting With Paint: Dat Queen

In Star Wars: The Clone Wars, there are a lot of villains. Some off them go on for only a single episode, some of them last for the duration. One of my favorites is Queen Miraj Scintel. Appearing in only two episodes before her untimely death, she was a nuanced and interesting character. The leader of a culture of slavers called the Zygerrians, relatively normal looking mammalians with bat ears, she is undeniably a villain, but a much more sympathetic one than is typically encountered in the Star Wars mythos. Now, due to my new graphical upgrades, I am able to paint much larger images than before with relative success, so please click to enlarge, as in the smaller sizes, it barely looks like I did anything.

"Lars, stop it. Stop it! Mmm, you are the bold one, aren't you?"

Her undoing, in fact is that she falls in love with Anakin Skywalker, even going so far as promising to release his friends (Rex, Ahsoka, & Obi Wan) if he will promise to stay with her. Some imply this is just a ploy on her part to break his will, but watching the episodes, she seems genuine. Ultimately, she is killed by Dooku for refusing to execute Anakin. Sure she tells Dooku it's "all part of her master plan," but you ask me, it's just because she wanted to keep the sky guy all to her selfsies.

"I will need men with your...hmm...talents, to spread our ways across the galaxy."

Miraj manages to be alluring despite having bat ears (not a feature most men find attractive), though much of the credit goes to Rajia Baroudi's superb voice acting. She is well written too, in that most of her dialogue is both menacing and a double entendre. She's a cool antagonist, and only having her for two episodes really makes me rankle when I consider I had to put up with Savage Oppress for what...two seasons? 

"Have I been anything but honest? I have no reason to lie. I am who I am. It is you...you who are the complicated one."

Anyway, that's it for this time. I was planning on doing more of the Kawaii stuff, but felt inspired to do one of these old fashioned paint overs rather than a drawing. Might go back to that for next week. see how I feel then.