Valendale

The system integration is indeed great, and I love the way it captures and old-school feel while still using some newer parts and techniques. Seriously, this looks like a moc of something you could have found in the comedies forum circa 2007. Excellent moc overall, the only thing I don't like are those fingers.

Seems like you've come a long way since your last blog entry! 🙂

This thing is basically already a modern classic at this point.

Coup and Red Dragon Inn are definitely favorites around my college, or at least they were since one of the recent changes for me has been getting out there less. We like the gambling rounds though and generally get excited whenever someone plays one of the gambling cards. Codenames is another fun one I've been playing more lately. I'll echo the Letter Recommendation. It's basically an ideal travel game. All you need is the 15 card deck and the rounds are quick. Nescent mentioned Dominion and I'll say that it's my personal favorite game. It's amazing for a 1v1 game and can scale up to 4 players for a nice more casual experience as well. Not easy to travel with though given the shear number of cards. Catan is a good game; I've played plenty of it in the past, but now really only bust it out a couple times a year. Always play it at Brickfair though, and things can get a little cut-throat as I'm sure TMD can attest to. 😜

I've heard some good stuff from Nightwish, particularly Amaranth. I should listen to some more from them when I get a chance. Mother Earth was one of the albums from Within Temptation I listened to. My favorite track from it is Perfect Harmony, which is...not the most metal song ever.

Yeah, he's great, I'd love another from him. But he seems to me like he has his other things going on now.

I think Bionicle Raptor and Chocolate Frogs still do BZP shirts every year, although I would guess it's unlikely Faber will ever be the artist for another one.

The translucent pieces against the mostly-black figure do an excellent job of representing the stars in the night sky.

Oh wow, I love this one!

Felt like I've been seeing a lot of beholders lately. I guess that contest explains it. This is a particularly good one, but the rest of the moc might even be better than the beholder itself.

Yes, that is the design he made for the 2017 BZPower shirts. It was really cool to have him do that, and it's my personal favorite of the BZP shirts. He also attended Brickfair (where most of the people with these shirts would have gotten it) in person that year.

All three of these are great.

It's been a while since I've been interested in new sets as they come out, but I decided to check out the 2023 stuff since all the images are going up now. https://brickset.com/sets/year-2023 I have to say, I think Friends is the winner here. The new direction they're taking it in is cool and they're coming out with modern day stuff that's either better than the city sets or just totally unrepresented up until this point. I could see Friends becoming the go-to for kinds into that stuff, especially since they went a little more "gender-neutral" with the new sets. The prices are reasonable too! The bubble tea stand is only $10 with a variety of bedroom sets available at the $20 price point. The gamer bedroom also has some Bionicle references. I'm interested in both those sets along with the cat hotel. The collectible minifigures are still at the higher $5 price point, but it seems like they're doing more to justify it now. I definitely want the falconer and might get the orc and astronaut as well.

Just checked out a few things by Within Temptation. Wasn't crazy into what I heard, but they seem like a big enough deal that I'm surprised I've never heard about them before.

For November, I started and almost finished playing a great visual novel called 428 Shibuya Scramble. I also played some more Town of Salem and I've been getting even more into Legends of Runeterra. Relatedly, I managed to get to gold in League of Legends right before the season ended.

Bonsai Tree? More like Bonsai Box.

Kraana

Hope you have a good Thanksgiving. 🙂

I was looking forward getting something here, but after double checking my bank account, it looks like the responsible thing for me to do is going to be to pass. Oh well, hopefully I can get what I want some other time.

Regarding spinnies or just BZP in general or what?

Nice chonky lad

Yep, they're just a measure of how long someone has been around for. At this point, there aren't too many new people around here, but welcome!

I've been playing some Town of Salem for the Halloween season. Also got the last achievement from Spooky's Jumpscare Mansion.