Ghost Rider Tops at Box Office…’Tix tie-in figs revisited February 18, 2007
Posted by webofwebhead in Attacktix, Marvel, Movies.1 comment so far
According to this Deadline Hollywood Daily article the new Ghost Rider movie not only was number one for the weekend, but will also be a record breaker for President’s Day Weekend openings. I’m pleasantly surprised by this, since the movie wasn’t getting a lot of good press going into the weekend.
Of course, I have a semi-vested interest in this film doing well, what with the two Ghost Rider specific Attacktix products I worked on. Working on game pieces for a movie that is months (or even close to a year) away presents interesting difficulties. I’m privy to certain details, but no where near the amount of background I have on more traditional pieces. On top of that, the arrangement of the sets is not set in stone early on…which figure will be packed in with the Mega, which will be in the starter, etc. Still, the end result I think turned out real well. I have a lot of favorites among the Ghost Rider subset of the Marvel release.
The Ghost Rider Battle Master comes with the Ghost Rider mega on his hell cycle, as well as the movie villain Wallow. The mega is a great piece, one of the few hybrid launcher/striker figures in the game, and a bargain at 60 points. Wallow is a solid launcher with medium base and missile for only 20 points, and his Attackback – Hidden power works well with the other movie villains…
Speaking of which, you’ll find two more bad guys from the movie in the starter, Blackheart has the unique Vanquish power and Abigor, a matching figure to Wallow. The starter also features the modern and western versions of Ghost Rider, each with their own Vengeance power. The sculpts on these two products are ultra detailed…the western Ghost Rider might be the most detailed figure out so far. Blackheart’s Vanquish power is one of the ones I’m most proud of…it’s a tad more complex than the average power, but once you “get it”, it leads to some rewarding gameplay.
Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t give you a good squad idea for Ghost Rider. The team I’ve been playing is as follows…
Knight Rider
- Ghost Rider – 20 pts
- Western Ghost Rider – 20 pts
- Punisher – 30 pts
- Electra – 10 pts
- Daredevil – 20 pts
This 100 point Marvel Knights squad has a little synergy, but mostly it’s just balanced with a lot of good powers mixed in. Punisher and Western Ghost Rider provide cover fire while your strikers advance. Daredevil can steal some attacks if the situation is right, or give your team a “free” turn if his special goes off. Hitting either Vengeance power will be sure to put a dent in the opponents team, and Punisher can be aggravating to finish off in the end game. – B
Clutter… February 14, 2007
Posted by webofwebhead in About This Blog, Attacktix.add a comment
Argh. You know how they say bad news comes in threes…well, hopefully today is three…
Two weeks ago I cut my thumb wide open. Last week our upstairs pipes froze, sending water running down through the ceiling on the first floor and causing who knows how much damage. Today we had a “blizzard”. Don’t give me crap if you live somewhere like Denver…I know 5″ – 8″ might not sound like much, but when you’re out there shoveling it yourself, it’s enough.
So…I’m working from home again today after coming home yesterday at lunch time. Bouncing back and forth between IT calls, Attacktix deadlines and chasing my daughter around…it’s tiring. My desk is littered with empty m & m’s wrappers (Valentines Day packs), Marvel Series 2 protos and a myriad array of pagers and phones. (Oh yeah, I’m on call at work this week as well.)
You’d think I’d have my desk better organized with the time off…but it’s just freed me up to do more work and try to meet deadlines. Random thought…the ice terrain from HeroScape is perfect for displaying the ‘tix Wampa.
Weird item of the day…last year after xmas I picked up this…thing. It had m & m’s in it originally (there we go again)…it’s like a super deformed ceramic chewy with all of my pencils pens and paint markers sticking out of it’s head. It’s frickin’ sweet is what it is.
Still adjusting to the 4 tens at work, we’ll see how this week goes. Busy times…following the Toy Fair coverage has been a blast this year, since I have a dog in the fight so to speak. Of course, game text is the last thing people have in mind when checking out the sculpts, and probably all of the effect figs don’t even have their effect plates yet…but the painted figs look awesome compared to the test shots I’ve got. I can’t wait. – B OUT
Attacktix at Toy Fair ‘07 February 11, 2007
Posted by webofwebhead in Attacktix, CMG, Conventions, Marvel, Star Wars, Transformers.add a comment
There’s been a lot of great coverage of the forthcoming Attacktix products for this year that have shown up at Toy Fair. It’s very exciting for me with my first Transformers and Star Wars sets coming out this year, as well as all of the event movie pieces (Ghost Rider, Spider-Man III, Transformers…).
Speaking of coverage…here’s the main thread on Joe’s forum. Here’s Rebelsum’s mini gallery. New Site Marvelous News (a division of Toy News International) has some good coverage here. Additionally, you get a nice gallery from TFW2005.com here. – B
Slashdot says…ebay pulls plug on virtual goods February 7, 2007
Posted by webofwebhead in Magic the Gathering, Video Games.add a comment
You can read the article HERE. The Reader’s Digest version…ebay recently began delisting auctions for virtual goods…think “blues” in World of Warcraft, Credits in Star Wars, ‘toons in City of Heroes. The basis for this deals with intellectual property laws and legalese within the eula in the games themselves. (I found it interesting that ebay never announced this…they just started doing it one day and people noticed.)
For the record…yes, I have bought online virtual goods before…back when I was playing a lot of Galaxies my buddy bought a ton of credits and I bought some of off him…maybe five or ten bucks. Of course, deals like this don’t make headlines, but selling fully developed characters for hundreds of dollars have from time to time.
It also appears that this has had a splash damage effect on Magic’s online version of the game. This is interesting, because it seems to cut against the MtgO philosophy that you own the virtual cards and can do with them whatever you want, but we’ll see how it plays out over time.
As Walter Williams often says…one of the true tests of ownership is whether you have the right to sell your possessions. I have a feeling that most people believe that they do “own” the virtual items they accumulate while paying real money for gameplay experiences…and it appears that other avenues will arise to fill the gap opened by ebay, at least for now. – B
“Suffering for your art…” – five stitches later February 2, 2007
Posted by webofwebhead in About This Blog, Attacktix.2 comments
I don’t do a lot of figure modding. It’s not my strong suit. But today, new exacto knife kit in hand, I started in on some Marvel figs, mostly to get an idea of how well they fit the 1:18 scale…
Well, halfway through removing Spider-Man from his base, I slipped, and managed to cut open my thumb from just above the joint to almost the tip. I mean like filet o’ fish TM style. About an hour later, I got the bleeding stopped, and decided to try and keep my lunch plans. After I got home and took another look at it…I decided with my wife’s coaxing over the phone to head to the ER after all…
1 x Tetanus shot
4 x Lidocaine shots around the thumb to numb it
1 x vigorous scrubbing of said thumb to clear out the clots
1 x stitch to start closing it up
2 x Lidocaine shots into the tip of the thumb to numb it again after the stich hurt like holy heck
4+ x more stitches to close the dang thing up
I’m really still on the fence about whether the cure was worse than the cut to begin with. 
Needless to say, I’ll probably retroactively lose my scout badges for knife safety after today… – B
