![Great NEW Commander For Warcrow? Hegemony Mounted Hetman Review | Corvus Belli [7 Days Early Access]](https://images.beastsofwar.com/2025/12/unboxing-corvus-belli-warcrow-hegemony-mounted-hetman-coverimage-225-127.jpg)
Weekender: What Makes A Tabletop Gaming Event Great?
June 4, 2016 by brennon
Welcome to The Weekender where we're talking about what lies ahead and discussing how you might be able to create a fantastic gaming event...
Updates
What lies ahead for us...
- UK Games Expo Live Blog - Check out the Live Blog where Ben caught up with what's new at the UK Games Expo (Otherworld 10th Anniversary Miniature)
- Lock & Load Outpost Next Week - Next weekend Justin & Ben will be checking out MK III for Warmachine & Hordes
- Waterloo Battles Ahead - Justin & Warren will be preparing to duke it out with Quelle Affaire!
Will you be tuning in?
News
What's in the news...
- Bolt Action Stummel & Polish Infantry - A superb new Halftrack and a neat new Infantry unit.
- 4Ground SV Hanger & Repair Bay - A great terrain piece for a scenario based clash.
- 4Ground's Dwarven Hall Takes Shape - The Dwarven holds grow in size from 4Ground.
- Star Trek: Ascendancy Limited Edition Cards - Limited Edition first series cards for the board game!
- Infinity Releases - A whole bundle of great releases on the way for Infinity.
- Battle Systems Sci-Fi Sneak Peek - Look ahead to the Autumn and Battle Systems next Kickstarter
Are you a fan of that new terrain from 4Ground?
Creating An Epic Tabletop Gaming Event
After the EU Masters event in Brno a couple of weeks ago we chat about what makes a great gaming event. We'll be talking about the location, the food, the things to do and see and everything in between.
What has been your favourite event that you've attended and why?
Kickstarter
We also delve into the world of Kickstarter and find out what's worth funding.
- Dicey Ventures Elemental Fantasy Terrain - Chibi-style terrain for your 28mm tabletop.
- Barbaric Splendor Miniatures' Heroes - Classic Barbarians for role-playing, skirmish games and more.
Don't forget to try a Free Trial for Backstage and watch The Weekender XLBS tomorrow
Have a great day!
Supported by (Turn Off)
Supported by (Turn Off)
"What has been your favourite event that you've attended and why?"
Supported by (Turn Off)
![Warcradle Studios Reveal TINY New 10mm Festive Marker! [Updated]](https://images.beastsofwar.com/2025/11/christmas-kyle-main-600-338.jpg)
Happy Weekend!
Happy Saturday to all. May it be filled with all things hobby related.
Happy Saturday
On a train to expo now so will be catching up with the shows when I return. The best gaming event I’ve been to is GenCon. It’s not a close competition either.
What makes a great tabletop event?!
I think you guys mean what makes a good wargaming tabletop event, from what you said. Because I would call my role playing game nights tabletop, some other people would, other people wouldn’t.
I think the idea of a closed off event sounds good to for a lot of these people, I know this isn’t true for every tabletop wargamer, but enough for to be a consideration a lot of them are a little awkward and I think them having that feeling of social safety helps them a great deal.
For me one of the most important things when it comes to my gaming night, is everyone is on the same page, we all come in and we start off by having dinner and we stuff around and joke, talking about non-sense stuff. But in the game we try to keep it a minimum.The rules and all of that are important, but we don’t want to get tied down with books. So we try to fumble over them. Ending at a time where we are all able to function the next day.
That’s what makes a good night for me.
If there are people who don’t think of role playing as tabletop then those people are wrong! lol. IMO, along with board, card, and minis games it comprises one of the four pillars of tabletop gaming, or ‘table legs’ if you prefer lol.
For some people tabletop means wargaming, the same way gaming means gambling to some people.
Seems there is a glitch again with Mac not allowing video. I’ve tried on Safari and Chrome and no dice. You tube is working just fine for today, but what about XLBS – panic sets in.
Having the same issues, and normally dont have any. Ill get BOW gitters if I cant watch it. lol
Same here. Can’t watch the video on a pc with chrome.
I had that and I am on PC (laptop), I just went into youtube and went to the actual YouTube page and watched there.
Seems that the Gremlins have been ousted, as its cleared up now.
I have quite a lot of Arcadia Quest minis now, and would entertain a minis game ruleset that uses the AQ minis with the Dicey Ventures terrain. No 3D printer and no funds at the moment, but something to look for when it hits retail.
@warzan I feel your pain about the hospital shows, my other half is a scrub nurse and she watches ALL the medical programmes… You’d think that after a day at work she’d be fed up with sitting through them, but NO…she loves watching them
We need a support group for this mate.
Last night was subjected to some bloody police show, catching drunk drivers – ugh depressing…
Some of these days I’m gonna make her watch one of the Thorium documentaries – proper payback lol
I mentioned this to the other half, she thought it was hilarious….I did mange to get her to sit through the first Hobbit movie…but sadly she won’t watch fantasy or Sci-fi…apart from Chinese fantasy style TV shows/films…her reason being its outlandish rubbish whic coming from a woman who watched three films about sparkly vampires makes me laugh…so I have to sit through various shows about people covered in blood that hasn’t happened due to being whacked with a battle axe or some other melee weapon..
It”s the Weekend! The weekend after the week I finally got my first games in of Frostgrave and Guikdball. Both great games for different reasons
To answer the main question? Simple – the people, especially anyone leading the event who is setting the tone.
Is it time to revisit the “swishes” and the hubs? A couple are looking a bit dated. The Mercs one in particular as, despite the attempts at KS’ing a reboot, not a lot is happening in there.
Can’t watch it either..frustrating. I’m trying since 6:30 but can’t be bothered now. Maybe tomorrow.
Happy weekend 🙂
I cnt watchit on pc windows 10 with chrome guys @warzan?
Sorry about that fixed now, a rogue character seems to have slipped into the code.
I’d love if you guys would keep politics and feminism out of the show. Everyday life is severely polluted by both.
I wish we could edit our posts. The Infinity stuff…*drools*! I said, just a week ago, that I wouldn’t buy more minis until I have painted up what I already own. But…but…I NEED those unidrons. My life just wouldn’t feel complete without one or two of those ;P
I don’t believe it’s really an ‘ism’ when something is clearly wrong.
I have no agenda in this, but it’s wrong and I can’t think of any clear reason why it is the way it is? (No real Rey merch)
We are now months after the movie release and the situation hasn’t changed. 🙂
Nice to hear it’s not sexism then 😉
Since you don’t know the exact reason(s) why there is a lack of Rey merchandise perhaps you shouldn’t jump to a conclusion as to why that is.
Ok 🙂
Let me put it to you like this… 18 odd months after release I can’t say I ‘jumped’ to this conclusion.
However if you have even a single viable reason why Disney (Master of the female lead?) couldn’t produce merch for Star Wars lead female character then really I’m all ears.
I’m not an unreasonable chap and will far more often and not extend the benefit of the doubt, but watching the merch for starwars unfold it became clear to me that ‘starwars is for boys’
Tshirt in ASDA (Walmart) last year had three storm trooper heads on it with the slogan ‘Boys Rule’
I was shopping for a Star Wars T-shirt for savanna at the time.
Boys. Don’t. Rule
I don’t have to, and indeed should not, give you a single reason for the absence of your preferred merch. The reason is that I, just like you and millions of other people probably, simply don’t know what the CEO/marketing/[whatever] department think or what plans (or lack thereof) they have when it comes to selling stuff. I have no clue as to why they haven’t produced Rey merch. But that doesn’t mean I can jump to conclusions as to why that is and accuse others of pretty serious things, like being sexist. The abscence of knowledge about something, Rey merch in this case, isn’t a rational cause to invent reasons which you have zero substance for.
Boys don’t rule? Of course they do. All kids rule. I’m sorry your feelings got hurt by that t-shirt. You can always order one like it that says girls rule if it tickles your fancy.
I have no issue conceding I may be wrong on this.
I’m just one dad who found the whole thing odd. There was a valid point made further down the comments about individual stores and their shelf space etc. This could well be it, but… one of the great benefits I have had these past years, is I get to spend an awful lot of time in toy shops lol
And I gotta say, I didn’t get this feeling with Harry Potter Stuff, or Hobbit stuff (If I remember Correctly), but the absence of Rey stuff was very obvious (I wasn’t out to analyse this, it just kinda stuck out like a sore thumb at the time)
Anyway you gave me enough self doubt I started to wonder was I utterly alone on this, so decided to google it:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/star-wars-the-force-awakens/toys-wheresrey-monopoly-hasbro/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2016/01/25/excluding-rey-from-star-wars-the-force-awakens-toys-is-really-dumb/#1df206535c1a
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jan/05/star-wars-monopoly-missing-lead-character-has-fans-asking-wheresrey
Now the articles may be bollocks ofcourse, but at least I’m not imagining a lack of the character in merc – (and of course as you have correctly pointed out my reasoning may well be bollocks too)
But, forget about all the ‘PC’ side of this as that is not my point, I’m just a dad who has both boys and girls who love a franchise I love, and I would have rather liked it if they hadn’t ‘feminised or masculinised’ any of it.
Regarding the ‘Boys Rule’ T-shirt, I suppose it is what it is, again ‘Kids Rule’ would have been great and I would have bought 3 🙂 (I distinctly remember wearing a ‘Kids Rule OK’ T Shirt as a kid, so definite sale there lol) – (Girls Rule wouldn’t have been on my shopping list either as (and maybe this is PC I don’t know) but I don’t want to give my kids the message that their sex has anything to do with their place in the world – they are just my kids to me)
Anyway my solution to the T Shirt is here: http://slimages.macys.com/is/image/MCY/products/3/optimized/3011290_fpx.tif
Now as to your concern about my feelings, was that a polite way of calling me ‘butthurt’ mr? lol 😉
I couldn’t reply to your post a little further down for some reason.
To be clear, I’m also puzzled as to why the lead character of such a well known franschise has such underwhelming merchandise. I have no knowledge about sales, companies or anything like that but it seem very unlikely to me they would refuse their stock holders a large amount of profit because the CEO dislikes vaggies. I’m not saying it’s 100% impossible but it doesn’t strike me as very likely. I’d be very interested in getting to know the reasons Rey is not exploited but I’m not going to speculate on the matter because I would just be guessing blindly.
I have a small local corner shop where I live and some time ago I noticed they sold tampons and sanitary pads but had no condoms. Sexism? I don’t know but I find it unlikely 😉
I’m sorry to say I can’t get your t-shirt link to work. I hope it was something fittingly cheeky though! I also hope I didn’t come across too rudely. In sweden the feminism debate has careened into batshit crazy lala-land and it is influencing everything very negatively. Even my mood!
@panzerkanzler Yeah maybe my use of the term ‘sexist’ is out of kilter here. I didn’t mean they dislike females (is that not misogynist though?? – I need to be careful here as sometimes, its real easy to screw terms up!)
My thoughts were,they decided in a big room smoking cigars lol : this is a franchise for boys, so lets focus the investment only on things we think will appeal to boys.
And perhaps in real life that is how things are with star wars but in my family…
I love it, my sister loves it, and my son and daughter love it. (Even my mom loves it lol)
The T Shirt in asda, although just coincidence, really started to seal it in my mind that the focus was there, (there was no girl alternative, and as stated in my mind at least that wouldn’t really of been of much use to me anyway)
So I don’t think it was about dislike of females at all, I do think it was a bit about following a long outdated formula of science fiction is for boys. (And perhaps when you are serving one sex better than the other, where it doesn’t need to be like that – maybe it does fit the term sexist – or I’m happy to settle for ‘short sighted’ or #painintheassfordad)
M&S and H&M have Star Wars clothing for girls at the moment. I know cause my 8yr old daughter picked a Star Wars T-shirt when shopping with Mum. I couldn’t be prouder!
😉
It’s not a secret. Rey’s absence is the same reason you’ll struggle to find Black Widow among the Avengers merchandise. It’s targeted marketing and the belief that boys buy this merchandise and boys don’t want the female characters. The belief is that adding those characters or targeting girls would have a net negative effect on sales.
18? Try 6. Stop wishing time away!
It there aren’t any toys of the female characters in a film that had serious female leads, then it’s obviously and indisputably sexist. Whether the motivation was greed / profit maximising or a dislike of girls (much more likely to be the former), the result is unquestionably sexist.
Disney may decide that they prefer to take the money and get labelled sexist. What they can’t do is complain about being called out for their sexism.
And I was very pleased to see you do so @warzan.
This isn’t like we’re complaining that we don’t have toy girls with toy bra burning kits. This is ‘dad wants to buy daughter a toy of her favourite character and can’t because all the toys are aimed at boys’.
@angelicdespot if you look below, @warwolf has posted links to all the Rey merchandise on the Disney store. There’s plenty of it. Not being able to get hold of it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
Rey merchandise has started to trickle out from Disney. There was none to accompany the release TFA by order of Disney’s executives who didn’t want any merchandise of the character made for the reasons mentioned above. The accepted wisdom is you make toys for boys and toys for girls and never the twain shall meet. Star Wars toys are aimed at boys, and boys don’t want girl dolls, so no Rey. Lots of Kylo Ren, some Finn, no Rey. Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, but no Black Widow. In fact, in her case, toys based on her scenes in the movie came with a male character in her place. DC Girls was released late last year and has been a massive sales success, which at the very least shows that girls want these types of characters too, albeit it is still a line aimed at a specific gender so it’s just a small step in the right direction. Disney’s back-tracking on Rey might be the start of big toy companies removing gender assumptions from their marketing.
According to Tasia Fillipatos, Rey merchandise is flying off the shelves.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/04/07/disney-strong-empowered-female-star-wars-purposeful/
That’s funny, at the time their story was they didn’t make any Rey merchandise because it would spoil the film by giving too much away about here character. Now it was because the non-existent merchandise was so popular you couldn’t find it anywhere. The fact is they were way off on this one. They had an out-moded and out-dated view on what they should be doing, thought Kylo Ren would be the popular character, and were totally blindsided by this. And when I say ‘they’, I mean it in a similar manner to saying ‘they’ about GW, but meaning Tom Kirby. I’m sure there were many Disney employees who were more switched on than the executives.
I think that’s why there wasn’t any at the time of the film’s release but they have released stuff subsequently that has sold likr hot cakes
@onlyonepinman, It’s an open secret that Disney intentionally held off on the Rey merchandise because of their policy of gender-targeting toys, and that the belief that Star Wars toys are bought by boys, and boys don’t want toys of girls. This isn’t some super special secret insider information. Vendors who wanted to make Rey merchandise were prevented from doing so by Disney execs because of the gender policy, and when the furore kicked off over the lack of Rey merchandise when TFA was released, they were open about saying so after Disney tried to claim it was because they didn’t want to spoil the film by showing Rey was on the light side. It really is no more complicated than they applied an out-dated model of thinking to the merchandise, got caught out by the demand for Rey merchandise, made up a terrible excuse that wouldn’t have held water even without vendors immediately contradicting it, then rushed Rey merchandise to market, and now seem to have come up with a new excuse for why you never saw it back in the early months after release which contradicts their original excuse. ‘We didn’t make any Rey merchandise because it would spoil the film, no wait, we did make it but it moved so fast you didn’t see it. Magic!’
Which may well have been true, initially. However that article post date’s the film’s release by 5 months. They have released Rey merchandise in the intervening time (there’s plenty of it on their webstore), maybe in response to demand, maybe in response to criticism or maybe both and that merchandise is selling like crazy. So 7 months ago, you could argue Disney got it wrong by not releasing Rey merchandise regardless of their reasoning but they have simce rectified that, put Rey merchandise on the shelves and actually cannot make it fast enough. It hasn’t necessarily cured the symptom but weirdly has cured the problem, albeit it has now been replaced by a different problem that has very similar symptoms.
An “ism” quite often implies something is wrong. If there was nothing wrong would you say it was sexism?
The highlight of your year? Warren, don’t let your wife hear that. 😉
Lol shhhh
You defence if caught is that is “one of my life highlights, one years event cannot be reasonably compared to our wedding”
You sir are genius @dags 😉
Live long in custard, indeed fellas! \\//
I could live quite a long time off of custard. It’s one of the most delish things in life. Though I’m not sure if living IN it would be beneficial. Wrinkly skin, risk of custard induced downing and all that.
I’m tempted to give it a go. Y’know, for science.
I think its an improvement on the original
Custard…mmmh.
Amazing! I started a forum post about a week ago asking what happened to the Waterloo match up and then it’s happening. It’s a great game and has brought my dad into gaming with me which is also ace. Two brandies and a 3 hour game on Boxing Day was the highlight of my Xmas holiday so I’m sure you two guys had a ball with it.
Live long in custard: I think we have a new backstager greeting for Salute at the pub meet up.
I think foam parties mean something very different over there Lloyd. In the USA and Australia a Foam Party was a place for homosexual men to ‘mingle’. Good show guys
Lol, different strokes for different folks 🙂
The short barrelled KwK 37 L/24 mounted on the Stummel was the main armament of the Panzer IV right up to the F1 model as that tank had been purposed for infantry support while the Panzer III was designed to take on other tanks. The same gun was reused in the early StuGs, various armoured cars and half tracks and even made it on to the late Panzer III N model. It was intended for suppression and destroying strongpoints, mg nests, anti-tank guns and the like. It was pretty crap as an anti-tank weapon even early in the war which was why the Panzer IV F2 and upwards got the longer barrelled 75mm (L43 and later L48).
Happy Weekend, I really liked the look of the sci-fi scenery and it put me immediately into a mind to purchase it to run some sort of tabletop Firefly game or RPG. I think with that set and some other bits and pieces you could easily put together all the various parts of the ship and play out some of the series episodes as scenarios.
Oh I am so going to post later about Poles in WW2
I will only add this regarding the hard fight the Polish put up against Germany and the Soviet Union: they caused the Germans more losses in personnel and equipment than France, Britain, Holland, Belgium, Denmark and Norway combined. You don’t get that in the mainstream media because it casts a very poor light on those other nations that had a whole 8 months to prepare for what came next…
V Interesting
Need to find out more about this 🙂
Actually…I think I’ve read that had not the Soviets attacked Poland from the east the poles would have had a chance, however slim, to actually resist the germans for long enough to entice the allies to actually help. I’m not sure that is correct, other than the fact that no nation (AFAIK) has ever survived a war on two fronts. I also seem to recall that german equipment and vehicles were a bit shit at the time and were a far cry from the machines they would produce later.
I’d like to chime in with agreement with @yavasa, and @dorthonion . The performance of the Poles during the 1939 campaign is by and large maligned, with persistent myths of backward Polish cavalry charging German tanks with lances, etc.
The way Germany was shaped back then, with East Prussia to the north and a German-occupied Czechoslovakia to the south, meant that Poland was “pre-surrounded” on three sides. Operationally, their position was impossible.
As for the “fourth side” of being surrounded, well . . . the Soviets took care of that, didn’t they?
Poland was outnumbered, outgunned, out-teched, and attacked literally on all four sides, and still they caused the Germans quite the hard fight. Something like 10,000 casualties, major re-writes in the “invincible” blitzkrieg doctrine, etc.
And as far as the Free Poles go after the fall of Warsaw, well . . . that’s another whole story. The Polish paratroopers at Arnhem, and never forget it Monte Cassino in Italy.
And some people get miffed when I bring his up, but Polish troops also fought very hard and very well for Uncle Joe and the Soviets, too. Polish rifle divisions, whole tank corps, and two entire Polish armies (120,000 men each, one with the 1st Ukrainian Front under Konev, one with the 1st Belorussian Front under Zhukov) went into Germany and near Berlin in 1945.
Well said @oriskany
I like the fact that you have pointed out the fact of Poland being surrounded in 1939. Polish defensive doctrine was to hold the front line on the borders which was sadly a suicide because there were no real natural obstacles and the length of the border was another factor. Polish economy and production, not to mention number of populace was significantly smaller than German so there was no possibility to compete when it comes to war equipment production.What is more there was Stalin at the back who after the Ribbentrop-Molotov secret treaty invaded Poland on the 17th of September.
Yet, let us begin and this might be bitter to some but still needs to be said. The whole Polish defence was based on the assumption that France and Britain will honour their reassurances given in 1939 that if Hitler invades Poland they will join the fight literally. Now, some historians and people believe that well, they did declare war on the 3rd of September when the Polish defence on the borders ultimately broke but still apart from bombing Berlin with leaflets nothing was done. What is more, British and French pressed on Poles not to begin the mobilisation of troops. As a result it was delayed, people were on the move on the 1st of September to their units assembly points and this plus German air dominance (still Poles managed to shoot down a few German aircraft) caused chaos on the roads clogged by refugees.
Polish equipment was not bad at that time and German was not bad too but there was a superiority in numbers and the Blitzkrieg tactics. There are of course beautiful acts of heroism and spirit of the soldiers. Just to name a few: defence of the Westerplatte which lasted for a week (a small outpost shelled by Schleswig-Holstein and attcked by a superior number of German soldiers), defence of the Polish post office in the Free Town of Gdansk (armed civilians defended the post for almost a day against soldiers who had to use armoured cars, infantry guns and fire to win. Defenders were executed). The famous Wizna (40 to 1 by Sabaton) Defence of the Mlawa fortified line (the bunkers were not finished – the losses of SS unit that tried to assault were horrendous), defense of Warsaw, the last battle of Kock, the counter-attack at Bzura which failed but almost stopped the German advance on Warsaw = a larger scale 1940 Arras counter-attack). Yet, as people said Poland defended for a month and well hell France, Belgium, Holland after more or less a month too. Not going into detail on the tactics of the allies of course. Many Polish soldiers fled after 1939 to France where they fought, equipped in WWI French equipment against the Germans again. As for Stalin’s back stab. Polish soldiers were murdered at Katyn near Smolensk after 1941 Germans discovered the graves but Soviets blamed them for this and only after 1989 it became a topic that one can talk about in Poland freely. Those who were sent to Siberia, Kazakhstan etc. later formed the units that went through Syria to Egypt and fought against DAK and later in Italy. @oriskany mentioned Monte Cassino. The rest of Poles formed the armies that moved with the 1st Ukrainian and 1st Belorussian fronts. In the Atlantic and in the Mediterranean the small but formidable Polish Navy fought against the Kriegsmarine. The destroyer ORP Piorun found and stood against Bismarck gaining time for the rest of the party to arrive. Polish DD’s took part in convoy duty. Submariners sunk Italian ships in the Mediterranean. Polish Air Force Squadrons fought in the Battle of Britain – most notable 303 but there were more.
In Normandy we closed the Falais pocket encircling the German forces. These are just a few examples.
Oriskany and the others pretty much nailed it.
Free Poles and members of the AK (Peoples Army) were basically rounded up and either shot or inprisoned after the war by the Communist Government. Many Polish people that escaped to England served as Pilots much like many of the Czechoslovakian people who escaped to Britain.
From the numbers I can find it seems more Poles served with the USSR than with the Allies but they could just be dodgy USSR statistics. The Polish First Army was made up of 200,000 Polish troops serving with the USSR and made up 10% of the force attacking Berlin.
It’s amazing how many nonsensical myths pop up during war that disappear as soon as you say the magical words. (But why would they do that it makes no sense). Polish Cavalry Charging Tanks (What happens when you reach the tanks are you going to ask them to leave?).
The Russians sat watching the Poles revolt in Warsaw, where the Polish were well and truly beaten badly losing 150,000-200,000 dead compared to 10,000 Germans.
Although Poland had an amazing resistance and probably the best Underground system of any occupied country and a Contender for the Bravest Man in History awards for Witold Pilecki who was a Cavalry Captain that VOLUNTARILY got himself sent to Auschwitz where he discovered it was a Death Camp and tried to organise a resistance. He gave deatiled reports that the camp was a death camp (forwarded to London) and pleaded for weapons to be dropped into the camp or troops bought in to liberate it. He escaped in April 1943 and joined the Resistance. He joined the anti-communist NIE (stands for Independance but also means No) where he fought until his capture in Warsaw.
He was liberated and spied on the Communists where he documented atrocities and after his cover was blown he stayed in Poland to document the arrest of former Resistance FIghters. He was captured and repeatedly tortured (but gave up no information) before being executed in 1948. He is quoted as saying to his wife “I cannot live. They killed me. Because Oświęcim [Auschwitz] compared with them was just a trifle.” His final words before his execution were “Long live free Poland”.
Chibi Frostgrave
@warzan let’s please keep this a PC rant free zone. Tired of reading PC insanity in my Twitter feeds without it invading my favourite website. Your store may not carry as much Rey merchandise not because there is none but because of limited shelf space and let’s face it most sci if fans are still makes and most male children want male action figures before they may pick up some female ones even if that female is the lead character. Some great stuff for your girl there.
http://www.disneystore.com/rey-costume-for-kids-star-wars-the-force-awakens/mp/1382280/1000396/
http://www.disneystore.com/rey-costume-for-kids-star-wars-the-force-awakens/mp/1382280/1000396/
http://www.disneystore.com/rey-tee-for-kids-star-wars-the-force-awakens-customizable/mp/1391941/1000228/
http://www.disneystore.com/rey-invitation-customizable-star-wars/mp/1394789/1000358/
http://www.disneystore.com/rey-figure-by-lego-star-wars/mp/1402261/1000255/
http://www.disneystore.com/rey-pop-vinyl-bobble-head-figure-by-funko-star-wars-the-force-awakens/mp/1400608/1000284/
http://www.disneystore.com/star-wars-the-force-awakens-deluxe-figure-play-set/mp/1390628/1000265/
http://www.disneystore.com/reys-speeder-playset-by-lego-star-wars-the-force-awakens/mp/1384867/1000265/
http://www.disneystore.com/rey-pin-star-wars-the-force-awakens/mp/1394183/1000287/
http://www.disneystore.com/rey-and-bb-8-elite-series-die-cast-figures-6-star-wars-the-force-awakens/mp/1390994/1000255/
http://www.disneystore.com/rey-costume-for-kids-star-wars-the-force-awakens/mp/1382280/1000396/
http://www.disneystore.com/disney-infinity-star-wars-the-force-awakens-play-set-30-edition/mp/1389053/1000261/
http://www.disneystore.com/rey-sleep-set-for-girls-star-wars-the-force-awakens/mp/1385368/1000390/
http://www.disneystore.com/rey-pullover-hoodie-for-girls-star-wars-the-force-awakens/mp/1402575/1000219/
Good post, thanks for these!
There were Polish soldiers in the ‘Machine Gunners’. We read that book in primary school when we learned about the Belfast Blitz 🙂
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_Gunners
Warren try the lego action finger for rey. its quite cool with the amount of flexibility it has.
http://www.toysrus.com/buy/lego-star-wars/lego-star-wars-rey-75113-6136879-71323496
Thanks for this I’ll check it out 🙂
Why did my comment get moderated
Too many links (anti spam feature) grabbed it, approved now 🙂
Dwarf buildings remind me of Paul Bonner illustrations from the early 90s
great potential
Warren, yes it is utter crap about the Rey figure and even Ashoka (Rebels cartoon – and even the other females from that show).
Both of my girls love those characters and you can’t find them anywhere.
Lego’s are great (my girls love those as well), but those really don’t replace an action figure they play with their My Little Ponies, Disney Princesses, and so forth.
A bunch of links from @warwolf on previous page.
(Some of it has been feminised – didn’t need to be really but better than nothing!) 🙂
Buy your girls lego. In a few decades it’ll possibly be worth MANY times what you paid for it. I have a friend who has been crazy for lego for ages. He sells some of his kits every now and then and sometimes collects over 1200$ for it. Lego…it’s like gold but plastic 😉
Rey is a great character? Really? REALLY? She’s a borderline Mary Sue who is ALWAYS right and ALWAYS has the answer to everything. I hate characters like that, I like to see characters with flaws and frailties (although Finn took this to the opposite extreme and was much too fragile); it felt very much like Disney were trying too hard with Rey’s character to make her everything that everyone might want her to be and in the process they have created a character very similar to Hermione Granger in Harry Potter – a bloody know-it-all. If anyone thought Luke learning to be an X-Wing Fighter Ace so quickly was unbelievable, Rey outflies and outguns two fully trained TIE Fighter pilots with a ship that she has never flown before that has a broken gun turret. Do me a favour please. The reason I think Han Solo was so popular in the original films is that he was hardly ever right; he pretty much bungles his way through the films getting by on a wing and a prayer (for the record, I wish Han Solo hadn’t played a part in the Force Awakens, it was a bit like seeing an ageing rock star – the glory days are gone).
There were other characters in the film I didn’t like. Almost all of them were miscast or poorly written.
By Star Wars standards Rey was a great character be interesting to see what they do with her, I also think there are a lot of nuanced vulnerabilities to the character the nature of her back story will make her a survivor. I didn’t get the know it all aspect.
My issues with it as a film are more plot based, but it felt like Star Wars and fit with the originals. Surpassing 1-3 easily, and being an enjoyable watch.
@onlyonepinman I think context is important in this (you are quite right on much of the above)
But let me qualify this again, a great character by star wars standards, and by the standards of my 5 year old girl and my 3 year old boy.
Which is fine but Star Wars isn’t Frozen. It’s supposed to appeal to a slightly more “mature” audience. I get that they want to introduce a new generation to Star Wars but to me that new generation isn’t today’s 5 year olds, it should be today’s 13 year olds. I still think that 5 year olds should be able to view the films but I draw the line well before we get to the point of actually writing characters with 5 Year olds in mind. That path leads to Jar Jar Binks.
I have to say it, as someone who isn’t looking to show the film to a small child Episode 7 didn’t live up to the hype and in terms of story and characters was a,massive disappointment. Only the visual aspects of it really saved it and made me think I want to go back for episode 8.
If we have to say “by Star Wars Standards” then we’re already off to a bad start. I’m not saying any of the original characters were better (except Han Solo), only that Rey isn’t better than anything that’s gone before. In fact, she’s markedly worse because she takes many of the worse aspects of Star Wars characters to the extreme. I think people are more forgiving because she’s a female lead and there’s this huge desperate desire for some kind of successful female lead beyod Tomb Raider. Star Wars has given us that but the film was successful because of the brand name and not because of anything any of the actors did (except perhaps Carrie Fisher – she would have been a great lead by the way); it delivered a successful film with a female lead but it didn’t deliver a great female lead character.
@onepinman I agree with a lot you have to say but to provide some context, I think Stars Wars as a concept has a lot of powerful ideas, but if I am being honest none of the films are what I would deem great. I think episode 7 is a good Star Wars film, I think Rey was a welcome edition to me as it wasn’t the stereotyped junk episodes 1-3 delivers and was so much better than Anakin in 1-3. As to Star Wars living upto the hype it was never going to unless you are one of the people that sees no flaws with Star Wars films at all. As to the point of a more ‘mature’ Star Wars film the Rogue one trailer seemed to be pointing in that direction, the re-shoots seem likely to mean that is not the case.
One point we will disagree on Han Solo, the character is a cliché, an entertaining one but not a great character in my view.
The reason I say it didn’t live up to the hype is because the general opinion of a lot of people seems to be that it did and I think that actually those people are viewing the film through tinted lenses. I think the PC crowd think it was great because it had a female lead, star wars fans thought it was great because it looked more like Star Wars because it wasn’t filmed using green screen. But really, the female lead wasn’t particularly enjoyable (very few of the characters were) and the visuals mask a story that is nothing short of a remake.
In terms of Han Solo being a cliche, a great deal of Star Wars is cliched, I think that was a deliberate choice when the original was made because it wasn’t written to be the huge saga that it has become, it was written as a slightly tongue in cheek style with a deliberately corny name. But I haven’t really said that Han Solo was a great character, only that he was, as you say, entertaining and he was entertaining for a reason. People who are right all the time and never get it wrong tend not to be very entertaining.
I agree with pretty much all your points. It’s a pity because the actor who did Rey is great. Even if one were to explain Reys silly mary sue style with “da force!” that would have to have been made much more explicit. As it stands she just emerges from a wide variety of tight spots like a boss. Her character has no flaws and no weaknesses. I find that very boring. All in all the movie was GREAT though. I just have to conclude with my usual complaint when it comes to star wars…I want the Empire to win instead of the filthy rebel scum!!! ;P
I don’t really want to call Rey a “Mary Sue” because she’s not, not entirely. And neither is Hermione Granger. But they’re both fucking know it alls and they’re both fucking annoying because of it.
Rey was more of a plot device than a character. It was only the actress’s talent in the performance that did so well to hide it. About the only thing that didn’t make her a Mary Sue was the fact the character didn’t feel like an Author’s Avatar.
I look it at this way, if the move as a tabletop rpg would you enjoy having that character in the party? Because I could see the Rey player describing the character to the game master.
“Okay, I have this orphaned character with who is waiting on a planet for ‘reasons’ so when the call for adventure happens she doesn’t want to answer.” Because everybody loves the reluctant hero cliche. When she does finally join the adventure she wants to be involved as little as possible so she can go back to the planet to keep waiting.” That’s some great motivation you got there.
“As for attributes, skills, feats, etc. She is an expert pilot, mechanics, hacker, survivalist. She also is an expert grief counselor, so much so when a person’s husband is killed they will go to her for comfort rather than a family friend they have literally known for decades instead. She also is good enough in hand-to-hand combat to chase and take down a storm trooper, even though she has never shot a blaster or used a light saber she is a natural with them. Did I mention she is force sensitive? That’s why she is so good at things you wouldn’t think she is. But… it is also like a hindrance. Even though she can learn force powers like Jedi Mind Trick with absolutely no training or even knowledge of that power, she like gets these super vivid visions that also makes her not want to adventure.”
I have heard and gamed with variations of that character concept in tabletop rpgs for decades. They uninteresting and frustrating both as another player or even as the game master.
Say what you will about Luke Skywalker as a rpg character stats wise, though; I don’t think New Hope version Luke was too bad. But he had a family in a New Hope, he was looking for any excuse to answer the call to adventure and always tried to keep things moving instead of just having/being the solution to all the movie’s challenges/conflicts.
I sure the character of Rey will greatly improve as new movies come out as more backstory is revealed (as well as to deal with the Mary Sue backlash). But character as shown in the Force Awakens just isn’t that good.
Maybe the characters in the new Star Wars films will improve, maybe they won’t. But at the moment they are very weak and that’s really all we can judge the film on.
@warzan well said on the Disney front, the toy industry has gotten terrible for the stereotyping of toys for boys and girls, and lack of Rey representation is shocking, as was the lack of Black Widow from the avengers. I tend to buy games or building toys for my niece as they tend to avoid the division
There’s also another side to the Rey merchandising story because they have actually produced a fair number of Rey products. Apparently a Disney exec gas been quoted as saying “The goid news is Rey merchandise is sell, the bad news is Rey merchandise is selling”. They basically can’t produce the stock quick enough and thus in many stores it’s constantly out of stock
Live long in Custard to you too
I found Rey to be a boring character and way too fabricated and politically directed. I like my heroes to be flawed and also to show some vulnerability along with their strengths. You want strong female characters, how about Mia from Evil Dead remake, mila josovitch in the messenger, resident evil, and fifth element, Sigourny weaver as Ripley in Aliens franchise, Hilary swank in million dollar baby, Lisbeth for a girl with a dragon tattoo, uma in Kill Bill and just about every female major character in game of thrones. These are truly fleshed out and realistic characters that displayed creativity in their creation and execution.
Yup your are correct, but your not a 5 year old girl or a 3 year old boy are you? 🙂
True for a kid she is a good character but Sabine from Star Wars Rebels is ten times cooler and that show was made solely for kids though I will admit I think it rocks.
Also worth noting The Force Awakens has a 12 rating on DVD so her character, while engaging for a 5 year old probably wasn’t intended for 5 year olds
I think there’s actually more Rey merchandise than there is for the prominent female characters of many other film franchises. Just see how little Avengers merchandise features Black Widow.
However, I think people should be complaining about this. I get sick of the anti-PC and anti-feminism black lash idiots whining and people asking for equality. Of course PC attitudes and feminism occasionally goes too far. All social movement occasionally go a bit too far. I remember what life was like in the UK 40 years ago though, when racism, misogyny and homophobia were rampant. The way I see it, the politically correct lefties that were winding everyone up in the 80s are the reason why my white self and my black other half can now walk down the street, holding hands and no get ant sh*t. Couldn’t have done that before the PC lot “ruined” everything 😉
No need for the idiot bit 🙂 (throw away comments like that start to fire up the keyboards lol)
For me at least it is about all things in moderation 🙂 I do think political correctness can go to far in some areas, however there are some areas where clearly there is still work to be done.
Point taken @warzan . I’ll retract the word “idiots” 🙂
@erastus I agree the issue is wider than just Star Wars, but to me it has nothing to do with sexism or feminism. It pure and simple stereotyping of girls get x, boys get y and girls/boys won’t like a male/female character etc. If you reinforce stereotypes you perpetuate backwards thinking and prejudice, children are not born with such notions, but more critically you place false barriers between a child and the areas they may have great potential.
I love Warren’s comments on Infinity. I can’t agree more. Of the 10 or so minis games I’ve dabbled in, I feel Infinity was the most fun and diverse for list-building. And he made a good point, you become attached to your army and models. At least I did, more than any other game I’ve played. They are special b/c they made the cut lol.
Currently I’m quite torn on what to play as my main game (my brain can’t equally focus on multiple games) – WMH or Infinity. Infinity would usually win hands-down, but a big variable is the local meta. WMH has probably 100s of players in an 80-mile radius and I can get guaranteed PUGs every week. Infinity just has maybe a couple handfuls of players and games are usually scheduled ahead of time.
I love Infinity more, but in my area WMH would bring more gaming stimulation. Any advice, Warren??
oops, meant @warzan
Good show again guys. Glad to stt that Justin and Ben enjoyed the warmachine trip. Looking forward to mark 3.
By the way the terrain really does make a gaming event great. My favourite one so far was the Team Yankee one at BOW. 🙂
Welcome back, @dignity and @brennon ! So tell us, are the ladies in the Czech Republic all as gorgeous as the media would have us believe? We were afraid maybe they kidnapped you and wouldn’t let you come home. 😀 (I know, a fate worse than death, right?)
Great segment on the Hanomag SdKfz-251 halftrack with L/24 7.5 cm assault howitzer. Everything @johnlyons says is on the money. That’s roughly the same gun as was installed in the original PzKpfw IV tanks, the original StG-III (back when it was an assault gun instead of a tank destroyer), and some models of the late-war 8×8 armored cars. I would keep typing but really I’d just wind up repeating everything John says. 😀
Great show! 😀
I do love me some Stummel 😉 Took the 251 and made it combat effective 😛
At least the Polish troops saw action for more than a week.
We were forced to surrender within on the 5th day because the Germans started to bomb Rotterdam.
More info :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_for_The_Hague
Considering the state of our troops and equipment that was one heck of an achievement.
I know I’ve had a packed weekend because I don’t start to watch the weekender until Sunday evening.
Great show folks love the new scenery coming out &.
Live long in custard everyone.
Live long in custard, and may the porch be with you.
OK, thank God someone mention about Polish spirit of war, as a curiosity I don’t know if anybody knew that the first flag that was waving at Brandenburgs gate was Polish but Russians killed the brave polish guy. I know this because my grandfather was at battle in Berlin. But no matter right know I know you guys love gaming in the gaps. I have 2 quite good scenarios that you maybe didn’t hear about.
1 Before 1 September 1939 Pilsudski wanted to lunch pre initial attack on Germany with help of the French (Sorry I’m not good with history of 2nd WW) from both sides. So we have few what with? scenarios:Poland succeeds and is a shield against communism so there is status quo to Stalinist Russia and we have maybe only east front (I don’t know how japan would react) If they would fail the faith of Poland could be worse?
2 Before Ribbentrop Molotov, thereto was proposition of Ribbentrop Beck in witch Poland becomes an ally to the Hitlers Germany and then fast attack to Russia.. and what then?
I wonder what you think about this changes in history and of course in war-gaming play. Happy commenting 🙂