Scalped Robots

Yay, I got new toys yesterday!

I didn't buy any TFTM movies last year, primarily because it was ridiculously hard to find Bumbleebee or Barricade at a reasonable price. Neither did I want to buy random unknowns just because they were available. I ended up skipping the movie line for a while.

I could launch into a long rant about how Hasbro should have just made MORE of the famous characters to start with. Perhaps Hasbro has a perverse incentive to screw over the casual guy who just wants a Bumblebee. Perhaps they're simply that bad at estimating relative demand. Ultimately, though, it's the collector who is responsible for shooting himself in the foot when he decides to buy at an irrational price; he is saying, yes, this thing is really worth twice the SRP.

Fortunately, supply was able to catch up with demand, and I was able to find the toys at close to "retail" price.. and from someone who would be willing to bring the toys to Megamall, too. So, yay me! Now I have something neat to remember the movie by.

Not in the cards

I really wanted to play in the Morningtide prerelease, but apparently NG had already ran out of tickets when I passed by the day before. I didn't know that such a thing could happen, and even if I did I wouldn't have expected it this set (which seemed to be relatively low-key).


Afterwards I found that the prerelease pool was all Morningtide, no Lorwyn. I'm guessing NG's supply of Lorwyn is still tight, so they scaled back the prerelease. Unfortunate, since I would have been interested in 6 Morningtide boosters... well, I'll have to make do with a booster box and a fat pack.

On the other hand, it was a pretty restful weekend. I watched Sweeny Todd (it was ok) and spent time with friends and family. I slept a lot too, which is very important. Hm, maybe I should just bug Pat to play a Lorwyn (pauper) league.

Bleach Fighting Game

...for the DS!

Since I started WoW, I haven't been so interested in playing RPGs on the DS. So I decided to see what games I could get in other genres. Bleach: Blade of Fate is a fighting game, similar to Street Fighter or perhaps Samurai Showdown. I had been complaining about a lack of fighting games on the DS, and I'm particularly happy because Bleach is good enough to fill that gap.


Bleach has some pretty deep gameplay: you have the expected combos, juggles, special attacks, and an energy bar for super attacks. You also have another energy bar that you can use to either "flash step" or power up an attack. And then you have powerup cards that can be used to give various buffs and so on. Not to mention a 4-player mode and a multitude of playable characters.

Apart from the fighting itself, Bleach has a good spread of fluff and gimmicks. The story mode is broken up into several missions that tell the story of the Soul Society arc. There's also a shop mode for unlocking things like more powerful cards or bonus graphics.


Overall: It's no Tekken, and the DS limits the graphics, but this is still a very respectable game. Highly recommended!

Also playing: Mario Party, Honeycomb Beat, Ultimate Mortal Kombat

Happy Winterveil

I've been busy with work this last month, but fortunately, HP has a traditional shutdown over the holidays so I was able to take almost two weeks off. Pat took a break too, and we decided to spend most of it playing WoW.

We ran all over Kalimdor, from the forests of Ashenvale to the salt flats of the Thousand Needles. We ran through terrifying dungeons, with help from Manchester. We even visited the eastern continent, to the green hills of Stranglethorn Vale (where we were killed - repeatedly - by despicable Alliance players).

Man, that was a good week.

Foluzaar, level 38 Shaman