Double Set Challenge: More Bang for Your Buck

Having been involved in no less than three different conversations about how to get started in Mobile Frame Zero since the end of PAX East I'm dipping my toes back into the Double Set Challenge.

The Friendship Flower polybag is a rockstar
of a set and should not be slept on.

The Guardian's Ship polybag
is also a good set.

Build.  Two Soldier frames (2Rd (gun) 1B (shield) 1G (extra legs) 1Y (target painter)) and a Station.

Leftover parts.

At $4.99 and $3.97 respectively, that's roughly $9.00 for two Frames and a Station.  Extrapolating that out, it's $18.00 for a Defender size Squad (4 units), $27.00 for an Attacker (6 units), and $36.00 for a Primary Attacker squad (8 units).  You also have plenty of leftover parts to convert into SSRs or other Attachments.  Both of these sets are currently available at Walmart.  Now all you need is a Ruler, dice, and other people to play against.

Review: 30526 Mini Ultimate Batmobile Polybag

My last review of the week of the many polybags I picked up from the Lego Discovery Center.  It fits thematically, right?  :-)

Bag.  I paid $4.00 for this, for $0.05 Price per Piece.

Instructions.

Parts 1.  Plenty of Lightsaber Handles, Jumpers, Plates, Wedge Plates, Brackets, Bar Plates, Tires, Rims, Axle Plates, and Slopes.  A couple of Lampholders and rocker pieces for Hinge Bricks.

Parts 2.  Plates, Wedge Plates, New Headlight Bricks, Grille Tiles, Clip Plates, Slopes, and Hinge Brick bases.

Build.  An IO frigate and HVA with plenty of leftover parts.

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+).  It may be a licensed set, but that's the top score.  Not too surprising as the other Bat-Vehicle sets have scored well.

Review: 6182882 Police Spike Strip Polybag

Yet another one of the polybags I picked up on my last trip to the Lego Discovery Center.  Unlike Monday's review, this is the first time I've seen a set like this.

Bag.  I paid $2.50 for this, for a $0.05 Price per Piece.

Instructions.

Story Cards?

Parts 1.  The Pin Brick is nice.

Parts 2.  Another Warning Strip Tile is always nice.  As are the Large Round Jumpers.  And I see my favorite part -- Plate w/Arm Up -- along with a Motor Brick.  Those 1x1 Keypad Tiles are neat too.

Build.  I didn't even try to make something.  You might

be able to squeeze a Station out of the set build.

The Questions:

Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?  No.  (-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?  No.  (-5)
Score: 0 (B).  Some good parts but not really worth it.

Spring Cleaning

I've updated the Community links page and my side column of Blogs followed.  Looks like the Hangar 21 blog has come back from the dead with a few quiet posts in the last week or so.  I've also made a listing of blogs that are completely gone, not just dead.  As usual, if anyone knows of Mobile Frame Zero pages, sites, etc. that I've missed please let me know.

Review: 30359 Police Helicopter Polybag 4

More reviews this week from my last trip to the Lego Discovery Center.  This is actually  the fourth Police Helicopter polybag review that I've done on this blog.

Bag.  I paid $4.00 for a $0.08 Price per Piece.

Instructions.

Minifig.

Parts.  A wide selection, but thin on quantity.  Plates, Slopes, Pins, Tiles, Skeleton Arms, Clip Bricks, a Clip Plate, a Bar Plate, and a Minifig Handlebar stand out.

Build.  An IO frigate with

four Attachment points.

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?  No.  (-5)
Score: +10 (A-).  Not that bad, but not a run-right-out-and-get-it set either.

Non-Human 29

It's Friday, it's been about four months since I did one of these, and I'm feeling lazy.  Have some cool pictures to look at.

Reverse Leg Type 2 by legovaughan.  This is pretty spiffy.  I
really like the legs.  And of course it'a a blocked download.

MRM-17 "Rocket Dog" by TenorPenny.  Cute

and formidable looking all at the same time.

A Wee Mech by Marc Reid.  This one is full of neat techniques.

AMS FS99 Furungsmachine Mark II "Mistral" 07 by Benjamin Chen Ming Hanh.  This is supposed to be the head of a mech but it looks like a drone or some sort of hovering/flying mech to me.

Flutter Buster by Csaba.  We don't see three legged mechs very often.

Review: 30353 Tractor Polybag

I was near the Lego Discovery Center again so I purchased more polybags to review.

Bag.  I paid $4.00 for this, for a $0.09 Price per Piece.

Instructions.

Minifig.

Parts.  A couple Bar Plates, A couple Clip Plates, a couple 

Lightsaber Handles, a couple Bar Bricks, a couple Axle

Plates, A couple Jumpers, Tires, Rims, Plates, Round

Bricks, Hazard Stripe Tile, and a few other parts.

Build.  An IO Frigate (2Ra/1B).  I attached

the armor plate using techniques from the set.

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?  No.  (-5)
Score: +10 (A-).  Not bad, not great, but it has some interesting parts and techniques.

Battle Report: Teslaville @ PAX East 2018

As is the tradition for the past four years or so, I arranged a full game of Mobile Frame Zero: Rapid Attack for one of the days of PAX East.  This one was kind of a last minute affair, so the only other players besides me were my long time PAX East friends Vlad and Ryan.  Read on to see what happened.

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

   Tank (recon by fire) -- 2Ra+d8/2Y/2W.
   Blue Scrambler -- 2Rd/1G/2Y/2W.
   Yellow Scrambler (light soldier) -- 2Rd/1G/1Y/2W.
   Chub -- 2Rh/2B/1G+d8/2W.

Me (5 Frames & 20 Systems) = (5 Points per Asset) * (7 assets) = 35 points. (Argonauts)
   Red Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W.
   Orange Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W.
   Yellow Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W.
   Green Recon by Fire -- 2Ra+d8/2Y/2W.
   Smoke Recon by Fire -- 2Ra+d8/2Y/2W.

Ryan (6 Frames & 24 Systems) = (3 Points per Asset) * (8 assets) = 24 points.  (Solidboxes)

   Yellow Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W.
   Orange Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W.
   Green Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W.
   Blue Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W.
   Light Blue Brawler -- 2Rh+d8/2B/1Gd8/2W.
   Red Recon by Fire -- 2Ra+d8/2Y/2W.

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

Events of Turn 1 (DDC @ 11): Vlad's Blue Scrambler jumps over and captures Ryan's Purple Station.  Ryan's Orange frame hits Vlad's Blue Scrambler for 1.  My Green frame shoots from the top of the train tracks and hits Vlad's Blue Scrambler for 3.  Vlad's Yellow Scrambler hits Ryan's Orange frame for 1.  Vlad's Chub hits Ryan's Yellow frame for 2.  My Smoke frame, also on the train tracks, hits Vlad's Tank for 1.

Vlad: 49 points.

Me: 35 points.

Ryan: 21 points.

Events of Turn 2 (DDC @ 7): Ryan claims his Station back.  Ryan's Orange frame hits Vlad's Yellow Scrambler for 2.  Ryan's Light Blue frame jumps out from behind a wall and slashes my Red frame for 4.  Vlad's Chub hits Ryan's Yellow Scrambler for 1.  Ryan's Blue frame hits Vlad's Yellow Scrambler for 1, it does the Station Dance in response.  I seize Vlad's Yellow Station.  My Smoke frame destroys Vlad's Yellow Scrambler with a 1 damage hit.  My Green frame hits the windmill for 3 damage and Ryan's Light Blue frame for 2.

Me: 30 points.

Vlad: 28 points.

Ryan: 24 points.

Events of Turn 3 (DDC @ 3):    My Red frame seizes Vlad's Blue Station.  I then give up Vlad's Yellow station.  My Green frame hits the windmill for 1.  My Orange frame hits Ryan's Light Blue frame for 2.  Ryan's Green frame destroys my Red frame with 1 damage.  My Yellow frame hits Ryan's Yellow frame for 2 but he seizes my Station.  Ryan's Red frame hits my Yellow frame for 2.  My Smoke frame hits Ryan's Red frame for 1.  Vlad's Chub Destroys Ryan's Yellow frame with 3 damage and seizes the Station it was holding.  Vlad seizes Ryan's Purple station.

Vlad: 35 points.

Me: 30 points.

Ryan: 21 points.

Events of Turn 4 (DDC @ 1): Ryan and I swap Stations.  Ryan's Red frame hits my Orange frame for 1.  My Smoke frame destroys Vlad's Blue Scrambler with 3 damage.  Ryan's Green frame hits Vlad's Tank for 2 and seizes his Purple Station back.  My Green frame hits Ryan's Blue frame for 3.  The Doomsday Clock is ticked to zero.

Me: 25 points.

Ryan: 24 points.
Vlad: 21 points.

Here's a couple aftermath pictures.

Thoughts & Observations:

• We didn't use Single Shot Rockets because Vlad didn't make any for his squad and I didn't have any to lend.
• Ryan used my Solidbox squad..
• I debuted a new Lego/Kre-O brickblend squad.
• I added a few pieces of terrain from my demo set up to the table as I remember Tom saying it was a little lacking the last time we used this table setting.
• Some onlookers were a little confused with all the terrain on the table.
• This was a really fun game.
• As I mentioned before, I have a new phone with a crappy camera.

PAX East 2018 Pictures 2

Even more pictures from PAX East 2018.  The majority of these I took on Sunday morning before the con opened while I had a little time to kill.

Wyrmwood.  I know the sister of the two guys that founded
this company.  It's always good to see them at cons.

This was taken from the top of the escalators near the Tabletop section..

Another booth.

Indie Bazaar!

More booths.

Another.

A shot from the skybridge.

You can see the Free

Play area in this photo.

A view of the Electronics
side of the show.

About halfway up this photo

is the Chessex booth.

A view of the line to get in close to
an hour before the show opened.

Another view.

Back to ground level.

The only cosplayer I took a photo of.  I'm still kicking myself

about that as there were at least three other costumes that were

amazing that I saw and haven't found in any image searches.