Java Fiend

I do not like slotta bases. I do not like them, Cade-I-am. I think they're ugly and they don't look right to me. I don't like having to glue more parts than absolutely positively necessary. (And don't say that it's not feasible to make good-looking single-piece figures, because it's been done many times, very successfully.) I don't like flocking. I don't like plastic parts on a metal figure. I don't like being forced to fashion my own base. Do you want more reasons?

Sigh. We've been through this discussion many times before. Count me as one of the integral base fans. I like 'em. Most of my miniatures are Grenadier, Ral Partha, Rafm, and Reaper Dark Heaven because they have integral bases. GW, Rackham, and the like will never get my money because they're slotta based. I will not buy a slotta based figure, period. If Dark Heaven loses the integral bases, Reaper loses me as a customer.

Ain't it the truth! If you haven't learned responsibility by now, having a baby is a great crash course.

Don't just buy her massage gear; massage her yourself. Her back hurts from all the extra weight - massage her. Her skin is developing stretch marks - work that anti-stretch-mark cream in. (This can be fun all by itself, but that's another topic.) Lavish her with attention. And don't stop once the baby's born.

If I had a router. And a workshop. And the patience. No thanks, I'll go buy a box of Lincoln Logs from Kaybee Toys instead, and spend the time saved working on my adventure instead.

Just finished Sean Stewart's Mockingbird. Magical realism in modern-day Houston. Voodoo, Mexican sorcery, and day-trading. Gorgeous writing. I could hear the narrator's drawl in every line.

The "For More Information" link at the bottom takes you to http://www.grenadier.it, where you can browse the miniatures that they're offering. I was referring specifically to The Invincible Dragon.

Ooo, that three-headed dragon is a nice one. But 33 Euros, plus shipping - ouch!!

In the USA, it's usually called superfine sugar.

Thank you Ed! Similar to your other DHL decision regarding broccoli bases, I appreciate your acknowledgement that not all of your customers are dedicated miniatures experts who are willing to assemble, pin, glue, and elaborately base and flock their figures, even though it might seem that way from the conversations on this board. Some of us just want to break open the blister and be able to clean, prime, and paint!

Ease of building, definitely ease of building. I just want to have something to play with that looks decent. If I wanted realism, I'd do the things you mentioned. And I'd also be casting Hirst Arts bricks for my custom-made dungeons instead of paying the big bucks for Dwarven Forge's marvelous ready-out-of-the-box sets.

There is a Hawaiian legend of a shark-man, who could change from man to shark. He had a shark mouth on his back, which he would conceal by wearing a cape.

I dredged out my kid's old Lincoln Logs and played with them for a while last night. They are definitely too large to use for 25mm human-scale buildings, but when I put a couple of giants next to them, they looked just right. The problem, as I mentioned earlier, is that they take a long time to put together, and they are susceptible to being easily knocked over and scattered. If I were to try this I think I'd go modular. I'd assemble a bunch of corner pieces and freestanding wall pieces, and glue the logs together to make each piece more solid. So it could work!

Has anyone tried using Lincoln Logs to make buildings in their games? I read on another forum that someone was going to run the old AD&D module G1, the Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, and wanted to make the steading out of Lincoln Logs. Has anyone tried this? It sounds like it might work, except that you'd probably want to build everything in advance. I remember Lincoln Logs taking forever to put together.

That's H. R. Giger, although you're right that it's pronounced like "geiger". Actually, I seem to recall that the original pronunciation is more like "geeger", but we Americans don't put much stock in those fancy European pronunciations anyway.

I wanna carve an Extreme Pumpkin.

How does "ichiman" translate to "one-man"? "Ichi" is the Japanese number "one" , but it seems like you're using the English word "man" in both cases. Isn't there a purely Japanese way to say that?

I use Firefox, but I haven't installed any of the extensions or plug-ins. I think it works fine as is! The biggest new feature you should learn, if you only have experience with Internet Explorer, is tabbed browsing. I have tied middle-clicking my mouse with opening a new tabbed window in the background. That way, as I'm reading a web page, if I see a bunch of interesting-sounding links, I can middle-click them while reading, and they load in the background while I'm still busy with the first page. A very, very nice feature!

Great! There hasn't been a lil' Cthulhu fig since the old Grenadier Nightmares one.

Gee, I imagined that Garrity shadow dragon to be a lot bigger. Discount Hobby is measuring it as 100mm from head to tail-tip. Well, maybe it's a baby dragon.

Hey, it's Elise and her pumpkin!

I love the three witches, but isn't the one holding the skull standard going to be rather top-heavy?

I think the difference would be when you have bidders who don't place their true maximum bid. They bid a small amount, and see what happens, and manually increase their bids as the auction close time approaches. Of course, you can get into trouble with this approach, because you'll be tempted to overspend to win the item.

If you want to go with the historical-pirates-plus-fantasy option, you must read Tim Powers' novel On Stranger Tides. It'll give you some good ideas about pirate life, voodoo, and the Fountain of Youth (remember, Ponce de Leon searched for it in Florida?). Plus, it's a great read. Unfortunately it seems to be out of print right now, but most libraries should have a copy.

I'm one of those bidders who scans the "newly listed" section, bids my maximum bid, and forgets about the auction until it's over a week later. I don't want to bother tracking the last few hours of an auction. If I get it, I get it. If I don't, I don't. If the bid gets jacked up early, then that means that you've got at least two bidders who are willing to go high on the item. Wouldn't you want to know that now rather than later?