Review: Zuru Max 83227-A Fuggler Mr. Buttons

I found out about this line because someone mentioned it on the MFZ Discord.  Then maybe a day or two later I found this one in the Clearance aisle at Walmart.  (According to the packaging they're exclusive.)  All the figures are more than a little weird, so let's see if there's anything decent in the set.

Box.  MSRP was $9.99 for a $0.09 Price per Piece.

I paid $5.00 for a $0.05 Price per Piece.

Instructions.

Parts 1.  Plates, 45 Deg Elbow Round Bricks, Technic Plate, Tiles, Wedge

Studless Slopes, Double Sided Plates, Domes, T Plate, Brackets, Studless

Slopes, Corner Plate, Ball Joint Plates, Bricks, Curved Bricks w/Cutout,

Printed Textured Brick, Bricks w/Studs on Sides, and Bricks w/Stud on Side.

Parts 2.  Round Plates, Plates, Textured Printed Round Tiles, Rounded

Double Sided Plates, Tiles, Wedge Studless Slopes, Cheese

Slopes, Studless Slopes, Brackets, Round Plates w/Petals, Printed

Round Tile, Axles, Ball Joint Axles, and Double Sided Plates.

Build.  Two Frames (2W), and a Station.

The Questions:

Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  Below.  (+5)  (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have

  parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  Yes.  (+5)
Score: +20 (A+).  Those Printed Textured pieces look ugly.  It's nice to see a T Plate outside of Mega Construx sets.  Overall it's not bad for such a weird little set.

Review: Brix 64273-02 Bento Blox 2

Since the review of the first set turned out pretty well, I decided to review the second.  Let's give it a look.

Box.  MSRP is $6.00 for a $0.06 Price per Piece.

Instructions & Stickers.

Parts 1.  Round Plates, Tiles, Macaroni Tiles, Dishes, Translucent

Gear, Cone, Brick, Bricks w/Studs on Opposite Sides, Round Tile,

Round Large Jumper, Round Plates w/3 Leaves, Double Sided Plates,

Studless Slopes, Plates, Cheese Slopes, Bar, and Large Ball Joints.

Build.  A Frame, two Stations,

and a 1 Hit piece of Cover.

The Questions:

Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away? Yes. (+5)

Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio? Below. (+5)

  (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)

If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have

  parts you should be able to put into use right away? Yes. (+5)

Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts? Yes. (+5)

Score: +20 (A+).  I was a little worried about this set when I opened it up.  While I managed a decent amount of builds -- I could have made more Cover if I had swapped some things around -- I feel like the color palette is a little limited.

Doomsday Hazard 2

In the original post I theorized that tying the expansion of Hazardous Terrain to the counting down of the Doomsday Clock could be an interesting game variant.  For reference, the rules for Exotic Terrain and Environmental Systems are on page 135 of the Rapid Attack rulebook.

In this game I chose the "Roadway Rumble" table-setting

because it was built around baseplates and had a fairly limited 

footprint.  I  chose to start the Hazardous Terrain (HT) on one 

baseplate instead of the three in the original post.  As there are

12 baseplates we rolled a d12 to determine where the HT started.

At the end of the first Round the Doomsday Clock (DC) ticked down twice

so the HT expanded two baseplates.  To make it easier for use, we decided

that the HT would expand in straight lines.  There were three possible

baseplates for the HT to expand into so we rolled a d6 to determine 

which ones -- 1,2 equals one, 3,4 equals two, and 5,6 equals three.

At the end of the second Round the DC ticked down twice again so the

HT expanded two more baseplates.  There were four possible baseplates

for the HT to expand into so we rolled a d8 to determine which ones.

At the end of the third Round the DC ticked down three times so the HT expanded three baseplates for this round.  There were 5 possible

baseplates for the HT to expand into.  To make it easier we rolled a

d12 to find which ones it didn't expand into.  Honestly a d6 would

have been easier and I'm not sure why we didn't think of that.

At the end of the fourth Round the DC ticked down

twice again so the HT expanded two more baseplates.

At the end of the fifth Round the DC ticked down once to

end the game so the HT expanded into the last baseplate.

Which we covered for sake of completeness.

So, to sum up, Choose a set of baseplates, set starting Hazardous Area, determine starting

point, start playing the game, and determine how the Hazardous Terrain expands.

Review: 30736 Technic White Seaplane Polybag

I found this set last week at one of my local Targets.  Once again, I was really surprised because they had it on Clearance and this is the first time I've seen this set.  I'm always interested in Technic polybags, so let's give it a look.

Bag.  MSRP is $4.99 for a $0.06 Price per Piece.

I paid $3.49 for a $0.04 Price per Piece.

Instructions.

Parts.  Angled Liftarms, Propellers, Axles, Friction Pins, Quarter

Ellipse Liftarms, Gears, Liftarms, Axle/Pins, Liftarms w/Axle Holes,

3L Axle/Pins, Axle Connectors, Axle Connectors w/Pinhole, Bushings,

Corner Axles w/Pinhole, Panel Fairings, and 3L Friction Pins.

Build.  IO Cruiser and RA Tank.
   

The Questions:

Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  Below.  (+5)  (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have

  parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)

Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  Yes.  (+5)
Score: +20 (A+).  I feel like I should have been able to get more from this set.  Still, plenty of useful parts.

Review: 30731 Animal Crossing Tom Nook and Flying Present Polybag

I found this at the same time I found last Wednesday's review.  I was going to pass on it but as it was marked down I decided to give it a try.

Bag.  MSRP is $4.99 for a $0.15 Price per Piece.   I paid $3.49 for a $0.11 Price per Piece.

Instructions.

Minifig.

Parts.  Plate w/Rounded Corners & Feet, Plates, Antenna,

Printed Tile, Printed Round Tiles, Tiles, Round Plates w/

Petals, Apollo Studs, Double Curved Slopes, Corner

Panels, Dome, Dome Bottom, Brick, Translucent

Panels, Flower Stems, and Small Corner Panel.

  

Build.  Two 1 Hit pieces of Cover.

The Questions:

Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?  Cover.  (0)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  Above.  (-10)  (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have

  parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)

Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  No.  (-5)
Score: -10 (C+).  Even on Clearance, it's not worth it.

Review: 30728 The Razor Crest Polybag

As it's May the Fourth, let's do a Star Wars review.  This is one of the "Free with Purchase" items from Lego for the event.  Hopefully it'll be more readily available once the movie drops.

Bag.  MSRP is $4.99 for a $0.08 Price per Piece.

Instructions.

Parts.  Round Bricks w/Pinholes, Truncated Cones, Driving Ring Extensions,

Plates, Round Plates, Rounded Plate w/Pinhole, Brackets, Brick, Inverted

Slope, Corner Tiles, Axle Plates, Round Brick, Corner Tiles w/Cutout, Bar

Plate, Door Rail Plate, Jumpers, Inverted Slopes w/Cutout, Quarter Domes,

Ingots, Studless Slopes, Cheese Graters, Clip Tiles, Tile w/Studs on Ends,

Bar Studs, Axle, Half Pins, Friction Pins, Curved Slopes, and Offset Plate.

Build.  IO Frigate (2Ras+d8/2W).
 

The Questions:

Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  Below.  (+5)  (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have

  parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)

Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  Yes.  (+5)
Score: +20 (A+).  Ship-in-a-Bag.  It fits IO scale and has some interesting building techniques.

Battle Report: Roadway Rumble 4

This is our second game of Rapid Attack this year.  As we had a limited amount of players, I proposed we play-test my "Doomsday Hazard" idea from four years ago.  The storyline I had in mind behind the Hazardous Terrain was that a truck has crashed releasing a "Nano Fog" which has resulted in a Grey Goo Incident.

Me (4 Frames & 15 Systems) = (7 Points per Asset) * (6 assets) = 42 points.  (Dread Squad) 

   Yellow Watchtower -- 2B/2Y/1Gd8/2W + SSR.

   Orange Watchtower -- 2B/2Y/1Gd8/2W + SSR.

   Red Watchtower -- 2B/2Y/1Gd8/2W + SSR.

   Blue Light Instigator -- 2Ra/1G/1Y/2W.

Tom (4 Frames & 16 Systems) = (6 Points per Asset) * (6 assets) = 36 points.

   Pink Recon by Fire -- 2B/1Gd8/2Y/2W + SSR.

   White Recon by Fire -- 2B/1Gd8/2Y/2W.

   Green White Recon by Fire -- 2B/1Gd8/2Y/2W + SSR.

   Brown Brawler -- 2Rh+d8/2B1Gd8/2W + SSR.

Phungkyjams (6 Frames & 24 Systems) = (3 Points per Asset) * (8 assets) = 24 points.  (Gundam Converge)
   White -- 2Ra/1B/2G/2W + SSR.

   Dark Blue Armored Fast Scout -- 1B/1G+d8/2Y/2W + SSR(x2).

   Grey Mobile Cannon-- 2Ra+d8/1B/1G/2W.

   Light Blue Delegator -- 2Ra/1B/2Y/2W.
   Red Binary -- 2Ra/1B/1G/1Y/2W.

   Dark Red Binary -- 2Ra/1B/1G/1Y/2W.

This is what the table looked like at the start of the game.

Events of Round 1 (DDC @ 11): My Yellow frame retreats South, angling off to capture Phungkyjams' Data Horse station along the way.  Tom's Green frame hits Phungkyjams' Red frame for 2, Station Dance.  Phungkyjams' Light Blue frame hits Tom's Brown frame for 3, Station Dance, then moves South.  Tom's Brown frame hits Phungkyjams' White frame for 1 with a SSR, then moves Southeast towards my squad.  My Blue frame hits Phungkyjams' Dark Red frame for 1.  Tom's Pink frame hits my Yellow frame for 3.  Tom's White frame hits Phungkyjams' White frame for 2, then moves West.  Phungkyjams' Dark Blue frame hits Tom's White frame for 2 with a SSR, then moves West.

Phungkyjams' Grey frame hits my Yellow frame for 2, then moves South.

Me: 49 points.

Tom: 36 points.

Phungkyjams: 21 points.

Events of Round 2 (DDC @ 9): My Yellow frame hits Tom's Brown frame for 2, and the tree in front of it for 1 destroying the tree.  Tom's Brown frame moves South and captures Phungkyjams' Data Horse station that was under my control.  Phungkyjams' Grey frame hits Tom's Green frame for 5, Station Dance, then moves south to capture my Brown station.  Phungkyjams' Light Blue frame hits Tom's Pink frame for 2, Station Dance, then moves south.  Phungkyjams' White frame -- which had moved into position earlier -- captures one of Tom's stations.  Tom's Pink frame hits Phungkyjams' Dark Red frame for 2.  Phungkyjams' Red frame hits my Yellow frame for 5, destroying it, then moves Southwest.  My Blue frame hits Phungkyjams' Dark Red frame for 2.  Tom's White frame hits a tree for 1, destroying it, and Phungkyjams' Grey frame for 1 -- then moves East behind Phungkyjams' Light Blue frame.

Tom: 36 points.

Me: 28 points.

Phungkyjams: 27 points.

Events of Round 3 (DDC @ 7): Phungkyjams' Light Blue frame hits Tom's Green frame for 3, destroying it, then moves West.  Phungkyjams' Grey frame -- trying to target Tom's Pink frame -- hits his White frame for 4, destroying it.  My Blue frame hits Phungkyjams'  Dark Red frame for 1, destroying it, then moves West.

Tom: 36 points.

Me: 28 points.

Phungkyjams: 18 points.

Events of Round 4 (DDC @ 3): With a SSR my Red frame hits Tom's Brown frame for 5, and the tree it was hiding behind for 1, destroying both.  My Red frame then moves North to recapture Phungkyjams' Data Horse station that was under Tom's control.  My Blue frame hits Tom's Pink frame for 1, Station Dance.  Phungkyjams' Light Blue frame hits my Blue frame for 1, Station Dance.  Phungkyjams' Red frame hits my Blue frame for 3, then moves West towards the Data Horse station.

Me: 35 points.

Tom: 24 points.

Phungkyjams: 18 points.

Events of Round 5 (DDC @ 1): Tom's Pink frame hits my Blue frame for 1.  Phungkyjams' Light Blue frame hits my Red frame for 4. My Red frame Station Dances then sprints Northwest to take cover behind Tom's Pink frame.  Phungkyjams' Dark Blue frame recaptures his Data Horse station.  Tom's White frame hits my Red frame for 1.  Phungkyjams' Red frame hits Toms' Pink frame for 1 then shifts to the other side of the Data Horse station.  Phungkyjams' Grey frame hits Tom's Pink frame for 3, Station Dance.  My Red frame captures one of Tom's stations.  The Doomsday Clock is ticked to zero.

Me: 35 points.

Phungkyjams: 21 points.

Tom: 18 points.

Here's several during and aftermath pictures.

Round 3.

Round 3.

Round 3.

Round 4.

Round 5.

Round 5.

Round 5.

Round 5.

Round 5.

Thoughts & Observations:

• This was a Skirmish.
• We forgot to use the Neutral Station rule.
• We used the "New 1.3" player count formula from my "Player Count 6" blog post.
• This was a full scale playtest of my Doomsday Hazard idea.  I'll post a write-up of the guidelines a little later.
• This was the 100th game since I started keeping records.
• There were no Direct Fire systems in any squad.
• There was only one Melee-based frame.
• Every other Weapon System was Artillery.
• I believe this is the first recorded instance of someone destroying their own Frame while trying to damage an opponent's.
• This was the first five round game since 2023.
• I forgot to build a Compass Rose for this game.
• I wanted to make a wrecked vehicle to be the epicenter of the Nano Fog but I couldn't find the pieces I wanted and I ran out of time.
• To represent the "Nano Fog" Hazardous Terrain I used cotton balls.
• I didn't take any extra pictures during Round 1 and 2 because we were deciding which Baseplates the Hazardous Terrain expanded into and mucking around with cotton balls.
• I used the Sniping Turtle Formation again.
• I was hanging on for dear life in that final round.
• Flickr page.