Random Dreams...

Last night i had a dream there was a flood in America. I had just shone up to volunteer to help and was directed to a mall to help gather food and distribute to people. I was teamed up with Flava Flav for this task. He kept making me and some of the other volunteers laugh and try to have fun by joking around and, well, just being Flav. In the mall me and Flav saw some kids looting a store. Flav got all serious and started talking to the kids, saying " why you stealing t.v.'s yo? There's a tragedy here and ya'll stealing, doing exactly what the white media wants you to do." "Stop perpetuating the stereo types. Ya'll wanna be real gangsta? Real Men? Help some people. Show the media they is wrong" etc. Then he handed the kids a stack of money and said "change". Then he turned to me and said something like "back to work" or whatever and started joking around again.

Reflecting on this dream this morning got me thinking about a few things.

I first heard Public Enemy around 1987-88. I was at a record store and hip hop was still new. I was into the Beastie Boys and Run DMC but had never heard P.E. The clerk told me about the album Yo, Bum Rush The Show and i picked it up.

Hearing Public Enemy that first time was like hearing Slayer for the first time, or Mozart, or Black Sabbath. It's powerful. It's scary how powerful it is. The world of music was being dominated by Huey Lewis, Bon Jovi, Whitney Houston, Jefferson Starship, Bruce Hornsbey(!) and this is what my 17 year old ears are hearing..


Twenty Four years later and i still would hold them in my top 10 favorite bands of all time.

The second thing my dream had me thinking is how funny it is that certain Hip Hop performers that in the 1980's scared the shit out of White America are now part of pop culture (Flav) Hollywood ( Hey Ice Cube remember that track you did with Public Enemy Burn, Hollywood, Burn?) or Yuppie ass makeup ( Queen Latifa). Flav i can forgive, but Cube? Damn man.

The Town

Irish White-Trash Reservoir Pups. I was really surprised to see "Directed By Ben Afflek" at the end. Not that i have a particular problem with him, he's always funny on Saturday Night Live and he was great in Chasing Ami, and this heist film would never be mistaken for a Scorsese film but it was better than it should have been. I really enjoyed it.

I Defeated Satan (For Now)

So to tie up the loose ends in the story below i did hear back from the seller. He apologized profusely and said to keep the 1st edition Space Hulk AND he would send out the Space Marine game A.S.A.P! Now what? I thanked him and said it really wasn't a problem and we started writing back and forth talking about gaming with our kids (he and his son play Pokemon). Yesterday Space Marine showed up and besides the game box being in slightly beat up shape the game is mint. As in Un-played. As in Un-punched still on the sprues!

So this game from 1989 has made it all the way to my doorstep in 2011 un-punched and un-played. This greatly increases the worth of the game and now a game i bought for $15 could have a resell value of $80 to $110 AND i got a 1st edition Space Hulk that could fetch close to $100.

An hour after opening the box last night and processing all this the guilt became unbearable. I wrote the seller last night and, while not entirely divulging the worth of the games, told him to at least let me pay for the shipping of the first game he let me keep and to consider a price i would be happy to pay for the first game after he did some research.

He wrote me this morning and said "the extra game is fair compensation for your patience and good nature. enjoy!" and declined any offer for paying shipping or otherwise.

So that's that. I should be jumping for joy. Why do i feel like i just received a "tell-tale heart" board game instead?

Satan Is Tempting Me Dear Readers.

Last week i bid on and won a Games Workshop out of print game called Space Marine. Its essentially Warhammer 40k shrunk down to 6 mm high figures, as opposed to the 25 and 28 mm minis. Because of the size you can have more "epicy" battles involving tanks and lots of buildings etc. without spending hundreds of dollars. I won a starter box set for $15 on Ebay.

I got the package yesterday. Space Marine was not inside the box. A long out of print first edition of Space Hulk was.

In the world of Board Game collecting this is akin to winning a vintage red Snaggletooth from Star Wars and receiving the Tall Blue Snaggleooth with the KISS boots!

Generally first edition Space Hulks can sell from $60 up to $150. And i just got one in the mail for $15.

Decisions, decisions..

The seller only has a rating of 4 and while they are all great ratings this is not an every once in a while seller. This seller is a rare if ever seller. Their last transaction was over 12 months ago. And as of now they have no sales pending and nothing listed.

Decisions, decisions..

How does one pack a game in a box(and not just some brown box -when we board gamers sell and trade we generally make our own boxes out of other boxes because the games tend to be weird sized and so the games don't bash around inside or get crushed etc.) and not notice they are packing the wrong game? Then i had visions of some college kid calling his mom and telling her to pack and ship his Space Marine game. She doesn't know a Marine From a Hulk and packs the wrong one. Then i imagine the kid coming home at some point and wanting to play his beloved game and POW!

I have Space Hulk 3rd edition but 1st edition would be an awesome game to have in my collection. Or i could sell it and profit over $100.

ugh....

I wrote the seller last night. I will give them a few weeks before i decide what i'm gonna do. In the mean time anyone wanna play Space Hulk old-school style?

C2E2 2011

Well put another "Con" in the bank. We went to C2E2 last Sunday. Had a ball. I didn't buy much this year. I picked up some Alien Kubricks series 2. These are blind boxed so i've been avoiding them but a booth had 3 for $10 so i took a chance and lucked out and got the 3 of the 5 i wanted.

(i got facehugger with ash, Dallas, and the baby alien with 2 eggs. score!)

Retro Outlaw has these, limited to 250, hand painted resin statues of everyone's favorite Droogy Alex.

Oh and by the way each one is signed by MALCOLM MCDOWELL!!! I am still on the fence if i'm going to buy one of these.

Yoshi bought various Hulk, Stormtrooper, and monster figures. And a Terminator (his favorite movie at the moment).

He dressed as a post apocolyptic marauder ala- Fallout, Road Warrior, Borderlands, etc.
Whatever i'm doing as a Dad... I know i'm doing it right.

Anyway, as always, pictures speak better than my words ever could. Here is C2E2 in Chicago-March 2011.

And the highlight of the show for him (and me) was meeting Finn the Human and Princess Bubblegum from Adventure Time. Princess Bubblegum gave him a lollipop that he's built into a sort of shrine in his room.

And here is our hero about 5 minutes after we got in the car.

Rango

Saw this on Sunday with the family. I was in love with the first half of this film. The second half was o.k., to bad it just followed the formulaic a-typical movie ending. Its nice to see Johnny Depp out from under the loving camera gaze of Tim Burton once in awhile(who seems to just keep making the same film over and over and over... ). Besides Depp's character and an old "injun" crow, there is not one memorable or likable character in this film. My 6 year old son loved it though, even applauded when Rango would "win" at a fight or pull off a rescue.

Board Game Auction Scores

I am lucky enough to live near a big, knowledgeable, and friendly board game store called Games Plus. They hold two auctions a year where you bring in anything related to Board Games and R.P.G.'S and the store auctions it off for you and the seller in return gets store credit for the amount sold. I've never been to an auction (much less an auction of my true love-BoardGames!)
so to say i was excited is an understatement.

Friday was Family Friendly games, Euros, and Abstracts. Saturday was Fantasy and Sci-Fi. Sunday was miniatures and Terrain. The store opened at 9:00 am with an hour to view everything to be auctioned, with auction starting at 10:00 am. My wonderful wife handed me $200.00 in cash on Saturday and said stay as long as you want. It was on.

This is what was to be auctioned on Saturday. (As always click on the picture for a larger view)

I got my auction number and sat up front. 99% of everything started bidding at $1.00 with no hidden reserves. This is what i won.

Anima;Shadow of Omega- A battle card game that reminds me of the Final Fantasy world. Retail-$16.95 auction price $8.00

Talisman 4th Edition WITH the Fantasy Flight expansion that included miniatures.
Retail-$45.99 and $21.83 respectively, auction price $21.00 for both.

Cosmic Encounter. Retail $45.87 auction price $12.00

Castle Panic a great kids game. Retail $30.00 auction $15.00

Car Wars - Deluxe edition WITH multiple expansions Retail ? No idea as this is long out of print. Auction $22.00

And finally the beast that is Horus Heresy. Retail $99 auction $51.00.

Some of the stuff i didn't win...manuscripts of original Dungeons and Dragons Moduals signed by the authors. Every issue of Dragon Magazine, bagged and near mint. An original Dungeons and Dragons starter set with the die and crayon for the die UNUSED!

I had a ball, got some great games, and made some new friends.

I stayed the hell away for the place on Sunday as they were selling lots that looked like this...

The next auction will be in October.