There are a lot of things that worry me about
the new Lone Ranger movie. I dislike
Depp as Tonto, I’m worried that Tonot is going to be the main character and the
Ranger becomes the sidekick, and I’m very worried that the movie is going to be
a live action Bugs Bunny cartoon like Pirates of the Caribbean. I take my Lone Ranger pretty seriously; I
really don’t want it to involve him in tons of slapstick wackiness.
What I am excited for is the Lego Lone
Ranger. Lego has done Western themed sets
in the past, but it has been a long time since any of them were on the
shelves. Four or five years ago I was
running the Western roleplaying game Deadlands.
We used Lego for all the miniatures.
I was all over Lego bit sellers and third party sites when putting
together mini-figs for the party and their adversaries. The picture above is of the Deadland's characters. At the time I was just dying for more Western
sets. It took a while but it finally
happened.
The real star of the lineup is the train
set. But trains and tracks take up a lot
of space. They set also costs about 100
dollars. What really excited me was a
much cheaper set, the stagecoach.
During that Deadlands game I was planning out what pieces I’d need for
stagecoach, this one looks perfect. 30
bucks gets you the coach, an extra horse, and 5 mini-figures. I let myself get one Lego set a year. If I didn’t restrict myself I’d be broke and
drowning in Lego bricks. So expect to
see better pictures of this set in a month or two when I finally break down and
buy it.
Today is another quick Blood Bowl
update. We are two weeks into the Spring
Training league at my local Games Workshop and I’ve managed to get in three
games. Currently my record is 2-1 but I
feel pretty good about that loss. It was
against a Chaos Dwarf team, they only scored once, and I didn’t take any
casualties.
I’m still working on all the miniatures for
the team. Last Friday I finished my
Coach, apothecary, and a second runner.
It was good timing on the runner, because I had just won enough money to
start fielding him. You don’t actually
need figures for your coach and support staff, but I think it is much more fun
to have them on the sidelines.
Another miniature I finished is my beer pony. There is no in game reason for me to have
this, it just makes me happy. The horse
and cart came from an old Warhammer Fantasy box set. I had to cut the mining cart off of it and
then I added a third party stack of kegs.
You’d think I’d be done, but I still have a
long line of Dwarfs that need paint. My
turn and reroll trackers need to be finished.
I also have two score keepers, a cannon, a referee, and a bunch of musicians
waiting for me on my painting table.
While I didn’t really mention it on That F’ing
Monkey I recently ran into a bit of trouble with my truck. It wasn’t just one little thing either, it
was a combination of things that worked in unison to create a perfect storm of
mechanical problems. I was very lucky
that Uncle Sam had recently given me my money back and I was somehow
responsible enough that I didn’t instantly run out and spend it on new toys and
video games. Yale Stewart isn’t as lucky
as I was, he actually needs a new car.
Yale Stewart is the creator of the JL8 web
comic that puts the Justice League in elementary school. I’ve spoken about the comic before because at
the moment it is my favorite iteration of the DC Universe. I’ve been quite vocal saying the New 52 isn’t
doing it for me. JL8 gets the characters
so much better than the comics currently in shops. If you haven’t read the strip you can do so
by clicking HERE.
Well it’s pretty hard to make money off of
characters you don’t own and Yale has stated that he is in some financial difficulties. So how do you help someone who twice a week
produces a fantastic web comic? Luckily
JL8 isn’t the first thing Yale has done.
There is also a 32 page comic called Gifted. You can purchase the PDF of the comic by
clicking HERE. You pay what you want for
the comic and Yale gets to build up a new car fund. Check it out.
The Dropkick Murphys have always been very
vocal about their love for Boston. They
were out on tour when the bombings in Boston happened. Even though they were across the United
States at the time the band quickly reacted to the news and began selling
shirts to help with the relief. The news
channels might have moved on from the bombing’s aftermath, but the Dropkick’s
haven’t. They just released an EP on iTunes
that contains three songs from the excellent album Signed and Sealed in Blood.
You get three songs for 1.29 and 100% of that
money is going to the Claddagh Fund to help those affected. The first of the songs is Rose Tattoo with Bruce
Springsteen. The other two songs are
acoustic recordings of a show they played in Vegas just after the
bombings. It’s a fantastic EP, it’s 3
songs for under 2 dollars, and it goes to a great cause. I can’t recommend you go to iTunes and
download it for yourself.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/rose-tattoo-for-boston-charity/id648685714
Axe Cop is the franchise that won’t
quit. What started as a personal comic
for friends and family became a popular webcomic, which was then published by
Darkhorse comics, and is becoming a cartoon in July. Now Axe Cop is getting its own toyline from
Mezco toys. It’s a genius move, because
the Axe Cop stories are filled with crazy looking heroes and villains. When a comic has vampire werewolf ninjas from
the moon, you know you have a potential toy line.
The action figure line will consist of three
4” figures and a bunch of accessories. Obviously
the first figure in the line is Axe Cop.
An Axe Cop figure really only needs to be packaged with one thing, an
axe. Mezco is being awesome though and
Axe Cop comes with an axe, a poopsucker gun, Uni Baby, and a lemon
grenade. Avocado Soldier comes with a
flute, machine gun, and a removable unicorn horn. Dr Doo Doo comes with a Doo Doo soldier, stands,
and a sword.
If you’d prefer your Avocado Soldier in plush
form, you can do that too. The 8” plush doesn’t
come with as many extras as the action figure version but is probably much
nicer to hug. That’s if you want to hug
a flute playing cop who briefly was a dinosaur before being transformed into a
giant avocado.
The real star of the toy line is going to be
Wexer. This 12” plush T-Rex is wearing
sunglasses and has machineguns for hands.
I can see people who have no idea who Axe Cop is still buying this just
because of how awesome it is. The 4” Axe
Cop would look pretty good riding on it too. I can already see him stomping on Doo Doo Soldiers.
I know we usually save all the beer talk for
Hangover Thursday, but I can’t wait for this one. Yesterday kicked off American Craft Beer
Week. That means from the 13-19 there
are going to be a lot of very cool specials and giveaways at bars all over the
country. We’re pretty happy here at That
F’ing Monkey if we can help you get cool beer stuff or introduce you to a new craft
beer, so we’re pretty excited about this week.
The website CraftBeer.com will have a ton of
information on the event itself.
Clicking around there you can read about how American Craft beer Week
started in 2006. Before that there was
an American Beer month. You can also
find things on their site like the awesome craft beer map I posted above. To find out what your beer events are going
on in your you’ll have to go to news & events, then down to American Craft
Beer Week, and then to ACBW Events. From
there you can pick your home state and check out what is happening around you.
I made a quick stop into my local yesterday
and came home with a free pint glass from Breckenridge Brewery. Not every event is going to be handing out
free pint glasses but it is still worth checking out. Let us know if discover any new craft beers
this week and what you thought about them.
I’m fascinated by animals, I always have
been. I think Safari Cards might have
had something to do with it. It might
have been all those Tarzan movies, or the stacks of Zoo Books, or trips to the
Detroit Zoo. As I’ve grown up my animal
interests have gravitated to the stranger.
Monitor lizards, hammerhead sharks, Tasmanian devils, and Tsavo lions are
just some of my favorite things. Because
of my passion for animals that don’t fall into the traditionally cute category I’ve
really come to admire zoologist Lucy Cooke.
Cooke recently wrote about a disturbing trend
in South Africa involving vulture brains.
There is a belief that if you take a vulture’s brain, dry it out, mix it
with mud, and smoke it you will receive a vision. It’s a pretty specific vision too, because
the people smoking it are trying to get winning lottery numbers. In case the lunacy of this hasn’t fully sunk
in yet, let me say it again. People are
smoking vulture brains because they think it will help them win the
lottery.
The way people are harvesting vultures is
especially harmful. One “hunter” will
put out a poisoned cow carcass; this will attract vultures from all over. This method can harvest hundreds of birds at
once. No population can continue with
losses like that. Seven of the nine
South African vulture species are now endangered. Despite their appearance vultures play a
vital role in their eco-system. Living
in Florida I’ve seen firsthand how efficient our own Turkey Vultures are at
removing carrion. Check out Lucy’s page
over at takepart.com by clicking HERE and seeing how you can help.
