Though I give the casting director credit for selecting Chris Pine, appearance-wise, as the youthful version of Captain Kirk in the upcoming Star Trek film, I must condemn his lack of loyalty to the franchise.
Most fantasy/sci-fi gamers are fans of either Star Trek or Star Wars, and often both, for varying reasons. Died-in-the-wool Star Trek fans know the pain of facing off against the pop-culture success of Star Wars, and can react only with outrage at a recent interview with Pine. Staing for USA Today that he is "“not trying to copy” the one, true Kirk, Pine instead says he is modelling his portrayal on HARRISON FORD:
"What Harrison Ford is so great at doing is bringing that quality to his characters that if they could be anywhere else in the world they would be there, but he is not, he just is in the middle of s*** and he has to figure out a way of dealing with it so that he can go back to doing whatever the hell he was doing before the film started…
I’ve always loved that quality about him in Star Wars, this sense of absolute grumpy manner; the accidental hero. Not to say that I modeled my version of James T Kirk on anything in particular but I think I definitely have wanted to bring that kind of Harrison Ford humour to Kirk."
Hey jackass: Kirk LOVED what he did. He would never have traded being a starship captain for anything else in the world, not love, not a family, not growing old. Being in the "middle of s***" is a starship captain's job. There is no getting back to doing something else.
Now to be fair to Pine, I don't really think he is a fan of either franchise. I think he goes to movies, or went to movies before he was an "actor", for fun. And Indy and Han are good "action" roles, fun and energetic. I also don't think he has an idea of what he was stepping in, vis-à-vis Trek fans and the problems we have faced in the shadow of Star Wars.
All good Trek/Wars fans know there is only one Captain Kirk, and there is only one Han Solo, and never shall the twain meet.
20 March 2008
19 March 2008
Seas of Blood
I just recieved my very first Man O'War miniatures. For some absurd reason, I've been eBay-ing this stuff like mad. I have three box rules sets (Man O'War, Plague Fleet, Sea of Blood) on their way and have ordered ships for a variety of fleets. 'Cause you know, having one fleet isn't enough; you need to be able to provide a fleet for a friend, and hey, two fleets aren't enough either. Variety, after all, is the spice of life.
So a bubble-wrap filled envelope was slid through my mail slot yesterday and with was the beginning of my Dwarf fleet. Despite their natural adversity to water, the Dwarves make fearsome sea-farers in their steam powered gunships. I lovingly unwrapped my first ever ship, a Dwarf Ironclad.... It was beautiful. The miniatures are well sculpted and nicely detailed. I can't wait to paint them.
So a bubble-wrap filled envelope was slid through my mail slot yesterday and with was the beginning of my Dwarf fleet. Despite their natural adversity to water, the Dwarves make fearsome sea-farers in their steam powered gunships. I lovingly unwrapped my first ever ship, a Dwarf Ironclad.... It was beautiful. The miniatures are well sculpted and nicely detailed. I can't wait to paint them.
03 March 2008
Seeing Red
Everything I've seen about the forthcoming Vampire Counts army for Warhammer Fantasy is awesome (a word I do not employ lightly). Fantastic models and a rework of some of the army list's mechanics that instills a strong sense of theme and really makes the VC stand out as an army.
Much hand-wringing has been provoked by the vampiric Blood Knight cavalry, who promise to be far more dangerous than even the current heavyweight contenders, Chosen Chaos Knights. They look stellar, perfectly capturing what a badass vampire knight should be.
However, someone over at GW Canada is apparently suffering from anal-cranial inversion, as the price tag for a five man box has been set at a staggering $110.00 (plus tax). In the US, you can fetch them for $75.00, and, in the UK, the asking price is £40.00. This is higher than the Chaos knights, at $65.00 CDN, $50.00US, and £30.00, which is not, in and of itself, unreasonable, as it appears that the mounts are metal. By God, they better be metal.
Still, all of the usual objections about currency comparison and endorsements of the WarStore aside, who in their right mind would think that people should pay more for five admittedly fearsome vampire thralls on mighty horses than a BANEBLADE? At $95.00CDN, give me a super-heavy war engine of doom, please.
Two vigourous thumbs up for fantastic models and a cool looking army. Two thumbs down (in the gladitorial sense, if possible) for absurd pricing.
Attention Games Workshop Canada: Your customers are not as stupid as you think they are.
Much hand-wringing has been provoked by the vampiric Blood Knight cavalry, who promise to be far more dangerous than even the current heavyweight contenders, Chosen Chaos Knights. They look stellar, perfectly capturing what a badass vampire knight should be.
However, someone over at GW Canada is apparently suffering from anal-cranial inversion, as the price tag for a five man box has been set at a staggering $110.00 (plus tax). In the US, you can fetch them for $75.00, and, in the UK, the asking price is £40.00. This is higher than the Chaos knights, at $65.00 CDN, $50.00US, and £30.00, which is not, in and of itself, unreasonable, as it appears that the mounts are metal. By God, they better be metal.
Still, all of the usual objections about currency comparison and endorsements of the WarStore aside, who in their right mind would think that people should pay more for five admittedly fearsome vampire thralls on mighty horses than a BANEBLADE? At $95.00CDN, give me a super-heavy war engine of doom, please.
Two vigourous thumbs up for fantastic models and a cool looking army. Two thumbs down (in the gladitorial sense, if possible) for absurd pricing.
Attention Games Workshop Canada: Your customers are not as stupid as you think they are.
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