Thursday, February 23, 2017

Legend of the Lone Ranger

Today's post was supposed to be about a mash-up of The Dukes of Hazzard and Superman, but I just didn't have time to put that together. As a filler this week, enjoy one of my favorite movies growing up, "The Legend of the Lone Ranger"!

I know there are non-English subtitles, but I'm sure you can look past those.



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Thursday, February 16, 2017

The Fandom of Others

Recently I listed to a podcast* that I had to turn off halfway through. This was due to the conversation on how people who didn't agree with the hosts were somehow stupid or coming into the subject with preconceptions. They weren't being mean about it, but that was, essentially, what they were saying.

I have no problem with people not liking something involved with geek fandom. There are things I like and things I don't like, just like everyone else. What I CAN'T STAND, though, is how people have to make themselves feel better about their opinions by putting others down. It is perfectly possible for someone to disagree with you about Marvel/DC, Star Wars/Star Trek, etc and have them be an intelligent human being with their own particular tastes.

It's one thing to say something like "I prefer Star Wars over Star Trek because it's more action packed," but another to say "I like Star Wars and anyone who doesn't just isn't smart enough to appreciate the storytelling." People are capable of disagreeing in a civilized way, but in this era of "group think", it seems like this is getting lost.

So, please, keep in mind that those who disagree with you have their reasons and maybe, just maybe, they are valid and well thought out. So, before you go accusing people of lower intelligence or being closed-minded, maybe have a conversation with them. It might turn out that you were the one being closed minded.

Besides, if you have to tear down others just to make your point, then your point must not be that good to begin with. (See my other blog for more.)

We now return you to your regularly scheduled geekiness.


* I will not be naming the podcast or the people involved, since this is a more general topic, and I don't want to bring that show, which I otherwise enjoy, under a negative scrutiny.

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Thursday, February 9, 2017

Star Wars: Micro Collection

One of the toy sets that I always wanted as a kid was the Star Wars: Micro Collection. Don't get me wrong, I loved playing with my 3-3/4" figures and their vehicles, but the Micro Collection seemed more up my alley. For one thing, they were more to scale with the playsets and vehicles. For example, take a look at the following two images, both of X-Wings and pilot figures.

"Standard" X-Wing and figures
Micro X-Wing and figure

As you can see, the "standard" figures can look over the X-Wing while standing next to it, where as the Micro figure would need to climb a ladder to get into his X-Wing. This just made more sense to me as a kid (is it any wonder I became an engineer?) and I always wanted them. Apparenty I was in the minority, though, since they went away fairly quickly.

I did get to play with the Bespin set, though. Our next door neighbor at the time, who now runs the wonderful Weather NJ website, had that set and the X-Wing. He was younger than both my sister and myself, but we would occasionally go over to his house and I'd get to play with my white whale of Star Wars toys. I mean, look at this commercial! How would you not want to play with those toys?



Considering how much these go for on eBay, I don't think I'm ever going to get to own them. It is nice to know that they're still out there, though, just in case the Prize Patrol shows up at my house.

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Thursday, February 2, 2017

JRPG's

When I play video games I tend towards Role-Playing Games. That's because I grew up playing various games with my friends (see Episode 7 of The Hammer Podcasts! for more information). Add to that the fact that one of my favorite NES games was Simon's Quest, one of the first true RPG games, and it's pretty obvious.

What isn't so obvious is that I primarily am draw to Japanese role-playing games, or JRPG's. Part of this is due to my first exposure to the Playstation system. I was at the University of Sheffield for a year and one of my friends had a PS1 and a copy of Final Fantasy 7. I fell in love with that game, with it's ability to customize your characters (to the point of renaming them) and switch out your party members. This was what I wanted.

Since then I've played several JRPG's, many from Square-Enix, and have, generally, enjoyed them all. They have a nice mix of story, hack & slash, and puzzle solving, which means they're usually something new to deal with. Add to that the fact that there's a lot of replay-ability, and my love of Anime, and you have a type of game that's right up my alley.

How about you? Is there a type of game, or a specific game of that type, that you just feel drawn towards?

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Like what I'm doing here on the blog and podcast? Why not check out my Patreon Page to see how you can help me do more? http://www.patreon.com/TheHammerStrikes