"Robots" Oh My!

 

 

 

 

This week’s League of the Extraordinary Bloggers topic made me smile.  A simple search on Board Game Geek revels 72 games with the word “Robot” in the title!

Most likely you have heard of the very popular card game, Magic the Gathering.  What might be unknown to you is Robo Rally.  How are these games related?  Aside from both of them having been designed by Dr. Richard Garfield, Robo Rally would not have existed if MtG wasn’t published and hadn’t exploded into such a popular game.

In 1993 Peter Adkison (fromer CEO of Wizards of the Coast, and now the owner of Gencon) met with Garfield to discuss Garfield's new game RoboRally.  Adkison liked the game but decided that Wizards of the Coast lacked the capital to produce it.  Adkison was looking for a portable game that could be played in the downtime that frequently occurs at gaming conventions. Dr. Garfield then presented the general outline of the concept of a Trading Card Game and MtG was born in 1993.

Robo Rally was then produced in 1994, and saw a second printing by Avalon Hill 2005.  The Board Game Geek description of Robo Rally is “Imagine that you're a supercomputer. Now imagine that you're bored. So you dream up a little contest for you and a couple of your supercomputing buddies. Your task is to move one of the stupid little robots out on the factory floor through a series of checkpoints scattered throughout the factory. The wrinkle, however, is that the factory floor is filled with all kinds of inconvenient (if not down-right deadly) obstacles located in various locations: conveyor belts, crushers, flame-throwers, pushers, teleporters, oil slicks, pits, et cetera. But the real fun comes when the robots cross each other's path, and suddenly your perfect route is something less than that...”

 

Robo Rally is crazy, unpredictable, and completely random fun.  If you can find a copy, give it a run.

 

Please check out some of my fellow bloggers entries about Robots in Pop Culture.

Pop Rewind

Calvin's Canadian Cave of Cool

Erik Johnson Illustrator

 

 

After a short hiatus, I have really enjoyed catching up on so many of my fellow bloggers posts.  However, I wouldn't trade the last 6 weeks as I joined my youngest son at his first Boy Scout camp session, took the boys at the Gillis Center to Rotary camp (I taught Archery for five days), and served as Camp Director for Cub Scout Day Camp in Kansas City last week!  In between, we took a short but fun trip to Sioux City & Sioux Falls with a quick layover at the Omaha Zoo!

I hope you are having a great summer!

Grey

 

 

 

 

A 3 Hour Tour That Lasts 10 Years

You are stranded for 10 years on a deserted island. You can take with you the following:
One food item (in a never-ending supply), one movie, one game, and one pop culture character.

If your not a Cool & Collected / League of Extraordinary Bloggers fan, please check out this site.

Nerd Rage Against the Machine

Team Hellions

Batcave Toy Room

While I love pizza & Chinese food, Peanut Butter wins out.  How about 10 years with the crazy like a fox Colonel Hogan.  He had a solution for what ever was thrown at him. 

As a huge board game fan, I would have to take a game that has unlimited re-playability and variety.  It is almost an impossible choice for me.  A deck building card game such as Dominion has unlimited playing combinations, but would it hold up for 10 years?  While Legos are not know as a game, in recent years Lego has developed a game line that include some titles designed by very well known game designers.  It has unlimited playability, but lacks the tension that I crave in gaming. 

My favorite game is Acquire.  It was designed by Sid Sackson, and was released in December 1963, the same month and year I was born.  It has held up for 50 years!

The movie was not as hard for me.  I'm a huge Creature of the Black Lagoon fan as well as Dances with Wolves.  However, my choice is "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World."  It is a 3 hour epic comedy that stars some greats including Spencer Tracy, Buddy Hackett, Jonathon Winters, Sid Caesar, Mickey Rooney, & Don Knotts.

The Chicago Toy Show; A Photo Essay

April 28th 2013 from 8am-3pm.  6 buildings of TOYS!

 

My favorite purchase from a St. Louis dealer!

The next show is October27, 2013.  I'm going, how about you???

Comic Books: Three Titles You Should Consider Reading

What an excellent topic for the League as I had a wonderful time at C2E2 on Saturday, and the Chicago Antique Toy Show on Sunday before a flight back to Kansas City Sunday evening.  A whirlwind 2 day-2 show/1 night trip.  Yes, the stars were in perfect alignment!
 
Aside from going to Artist Alley and covering as much of the dealer hall as I could, I had a goal to meet John McCrea / "Mars Attacks", James Silvani / "Darkwing Duck", and Jeffery Brown / "Darth Vader and Son." 

In 1962, Topps released a non-sports card set called Mars Attacks.  The 55 card set featured a Martian invasion & story line.  The set was very popular, and raised some concern as many cards featured explicit gore.  An original set is very difficult to come by it has been reprinted several times, the last was this past fall in celebration of it's 50th anniversary.  The card set inspired a 1996 film entitled "Mars Attack" that was directed by Tim Burton.  The film stars Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, and Danny DeVito, with Sarah Jessica Parker, Martin Short, Natalie Portman, Michael J. Fox, and Christina Applegate.
 

John McCrea began working on the Mars Attacks! 50th anniversary re-launch of the ongoing comic, written by John Layman and published by IDW in 2012. He also contributed 15 new cards to the  Heritage set and exclusive variants for the set. 
 
This past Saturday, John drew a sketch for me, as I purchased a Convention Sketch book by IDW.  My goal is for the book to feature an alien / space theme.  My first sketch in entitled "Martians on Vacation."

 

 
During our recent comic book convention in Kansas City, I met a legendary (IMHO) artist, Don Rosa.  Don Rosa earned the Will Eisner Award in 1995 for The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck.  The story follows the main events of Scrooge's life while providing back ground information and origins of many characters related to Scrooge.  I got carried away, purchased 4 prints from him.  My favorite is Scrooge as Superman.  In following Don's footsteps is James Silvani.  He is an artist for Darkwing Duck and Richie Rich. 

Drake Mallard is a average citizen by day and St. Canard's resident superhero by night.  As a young boy, I was a huge Donald Duck, Scrooge, and Daisy Duck fan.  Poor Donald was always misunderstood & an understudy to Mickey.  James drew a second sketch for me with Darkwing battling Marvin the Martian.

 

 

The third artist I was excited to meet was Jeffery Brown.  This fall I accidently found a small graphic novel that I immediately fell in love with, Darth Vader and Son.  It is a what if.... story.  What if Darth raised Luke?  The single panels capture the parent's story that I have lived for the past 20 years (Ryan 20, Hunter 19, & Ian 11) within the Star Wars universe.  After finding this wonderful book, I shared a page a day with a close friend who's twin brother was losing his battle against cancer.  Jeff then followed this title with Darth Vader's Little Princess.  What if Darth raise Leia?  They are must reads for all parents & Star Wars fans!

 

 

Overall, C2E2 was a blast! 

Please check out these addition League Blogs, as they explore this week's topic of Comics.

Cold Slither explores May Day

Erik Johnson Illustrator

30ish Year Old Boy - the lazy day of comics


I met Brian's Kong's relative!