Hey Weta fans,
It’s been a fantastic month — can’t believe it’s been that long since we relaunched the site. So many people have signed up, made reviews and comments, posted encouraging notes on forums all over the world. And even helped us out with photos and information. It’s all hugely appreciated. We thought we’d encourage you even further to review the pieces you own, so place product reviews for the items you own by April 15th and we will draw three winners who each get 60 Weta Dollars to spend. That’s enough for a Doctor Who helmet. Or a mini Raygun. So get reviewing — you enter automatically just by writing a review and I will pick a winner at random.
Barista: The Game from Discovery Bay Games is a Whole Latte fun!
I’ve been in the gourmet coffee business most of my adult life. As a longtime barista, the idea of the game Barista from Discovery Bay Games intrigued me. When I picked it up and examined it for the first time, I smiled at the faux burlap print that covers the box. (The newest edition comes in a black and blue pinstripe box.) As a coffee fanatic, I have a small collection of the burlap bags that green coffee is shipped and stored in. Then I opened the box and began examining the game pieces, and was pleased to see an accurate selection of drinks depicted on the cards and dice.
Starbucks may have been the first big company to make wide use of the drink marking boxes, but it is by no means the only company using them. While the customer may not understand the importance of drink calling in order, it helps assist the barista improve the accuracy of the drinks, especially during peak periods. That the creators of the game took the time to include proper drink calling in the gameplay thrilled me to no end. Baristas around the world should rejoice and purchase this game to play with their friends, and offer it along with their other in-store games for customers to play.
The gameplay is simple and easy to catch on to. The object of the game is to be the first barista to accurately “build” the customer’s drink. Along the way, you can slow down and trip up your fellow baristas, quite literally if you draw a “spill drink” card to lay on them. Some of the cards are similar to Uno, with wild cards that can be anything, steal cards that allow you to take an ingredient card from another player’s hand, or a re-roll that lets you change one of the drink dice. Each time you win a hand, you receive 2 golden “tip” tokens. The first player to get 5 tip tokens wins the game. With a 2-player game, we modified the tip rule for game win, increasing 5 coins to 10 to lengthen gameplay.
Another fun twist on the gameplay is betting with your tips in what is called a “Barista Challenge”. If you already have at least 1 token, you can bet it against any other player that you will have more correct ingredients than them at the end of the hand, even if you don’t win the hand. If you win the challenge, you get a tip coin. If you lose the challenge, you lose a tip coin.
One point of confusion in the gameplay is setting down matching ingredients. The instructions say that you can set your matched ingredients face down on the playing surface so you are only holding the unmatched ingredients in your hand. The cards that are set down are still considered to be part of your hand, though, so when another player gets a steal card, these cards would be the obvious targets to take. The instructions don’t specify if they can be taken or if they are safe. We chose before a few games not to lay down cards, so as to randomize success when the steal card is played.
The box has a molded insert that neatly and securely holds all of the game pieces, and is small enough to store on an average bookshelf. The large dice are easy to read and the cards are thick, coated, and seem to be highly durable for many years of fun gameplay. While the demitasse cup is the right size for a dopio espresso macchiato, it’s actually for shaking up the dice. Perfect for any coffee lover, Barista is fun, fast-paced, and educational for anyone who drinks coffee and never knows how to order their drink.
The game includes:
52 Playing Cards
4 Drink Order Dice
1 Tip Token Bag
20 Tip Tokens
1 Espresso Cup Shaker
The deck is made up of different coffee cards:
Drink — Cappuccino, Mocha or Latte
Size — Short, Tall or Grande
Milk — Nonfat, Breve or Soy
Shots — Single, Double or Triple
Wild — A wild card can represent any element of a specific drink order.
Roll — Player must re-roll one Drink Order Die.
Change — Player must change one Drink Order Die.
Take — Player must take one card from another barista.
Spill — Player can choose to spill one opponent’s drink.
These last few weeks have been more deliciously geeky than Melange
flavored jelly beans eaten on a holodeck trip to planet Raisa… We had a successful shuttle launch, Pi day, The theatrical release of one of the best novels (graphic or otherwise) of all time, Einstein’s Birthday, Resident Evil 5, and the list goes on. In fact it does right now with the return of the Force FX Lightsabers…
Without lightsabers, Luke Skywalker would just have been a whiney brat. Without lightsabers, Darth Vader would just have been a big dude in a funky suit. Without lightsabers, the Jedi would never have been able to force back all three Ewok invasions. Lightsabers are a noble weapon of a more civilized time. By focusing power through Adegan crystals, a blade of pure energy is produced. Well, these sabers aren’t real (that is, they won’t take Ponda Baba’s arm off), but they are so close you won’t mind. Featuring power-up and power-down light and sound effects, as well as energy hum, swish, and crash sounds (taken directly from the films), these Force FX sabers will help you take the step from Padawan fan to true Jedi Knight.
Go green and learn how to adopt an eco lifestyle with the Power House, an Alternative Energy & Environmental Science kit from “edutainment” company Thames & Kosmos. The Power House is designed for ages 12 and up, and requires no soldering, making it an ideal hobby for the entire family.
“This is by far one of the best put together packages we have ever seen. Items like this will hopefully inspire our future generations to design and build energy efficient homes. Great for Birthdays, Summer Camp Projects, Boy Scouts and more.” — Carl’s Electronics
Sustainable Living in the 21st Century
Power House provides an engaging introduction to regenerative energy sources while teaching basic concepts and principles in physical science. The kit focuses on the heat and light energy from the sun, the energy from the wind, as well as with electrochemical and plant energy. You will learn how to transform and use these forms of energy.
With the Power House kit you can build a model house complete with solar panels, windmill, greenhouse, and desalination system. You can build and operate an electric train, windmill, solar cooker, solar hot water tank, hygrometer, electric motor, power hoist, sail car, and more! Plant watercress, prepare sauerkraut, and make chewing gum. Learn how plants convert sunlight into energy for your body and your engines.
The thoughtfully designed series of experiments was developed by physicist Uwe Wandrey. Professor Wandrey creatively integrates physical science and technology lessons with the adventure of building a home and living on a remote island. To survive, you must learn how to harness the power of the sun and the wind as well as tap the energy of other physical forces. The storyline follows the experiments in a stepwise fashion. Easy-to-follow activities make it fun to build models and use them for your experiments.
We hope that building small models such as are provided in Power House will inspire you to plan and construct something on a larger scale.
An Adventure in Sustainable Living
The Power House Experiment Manual is much more than just a set of instructions. The manual is organized around the story of a group of island dwellers who must learn to live sustainably using the resources available to them on their small island. As you read their journal entries and learn of their projects and experiments, you build models of the same projects and conduct the same experiments alongside them.
More than 20 different building projects in one kit!
Power House
Wind-powered Generator
Solar Collector
Solar Power Station
Greenhouse
Current Indicator
Sail Car
Hygrometer
Refrigerator
Electric Motor
Electric Crane
Electric Train
Oil Lamp
Light Telescope
Rice Cooker
Solar Oven
Oil Press
Thumbtack Scale
Lemon Battery
Electric Switch
Power House includes a 96-page full color manual with 70 experiments and 20 building projects, organized into these nine chapters:
• The Heat Trap: Construct and experiment with a greenhouse.
• The Sun Collector: Collect the sun’s rays to heat water.
• The Sun Burners: Make a solar cooker while learning about the principles of light before you cook rice and bake bread.
• The Water Vampire: Desalinate water, plant watercress, produce sauerkraut and make chewing gum.
• The Heat Absorbers: Learn how heat of evaporation provides cooling, conduct experiments about air humidity, build a hygrometer and test a refrigerator.
• Power Plants: Grow beans, make a potted plant feed a candle, harvest sunflower energy, build an oil press, and assemble an oil lamp.
• The Energy Converters: Extract electric current from sunlight and metals in acid, build a light telephone, galvanize a nail and split water into hydrogen and oxygen.
• The Forces of Magnetism: Generate electric current with magnetic fields. Build a current indicator, electric and solar motors, a transfer switch, and a crane. Lift pencils with the sun and learn about levers. Build an electric car.
• Wings in the Wind: Build a sail car and learn how wings and sails transform energy. Learn to sail with the wind, by the wind, and against the wind and examine a mixed energy vehicle.
Available through Thames & Kosmos or one of their Dealers. For all the latest product news, follow Thames & Kosmos on Facebook.
Cyber Controller statues are now shipping World Wide. This impressive and dynamic piece has now reached all our warehouses and will reach eager pre-orderers shortly.
But wait! There’s more!
Lord President Borusa’s Headdress has started shipping in New Zealand and is not far off the rest of the world. This means the last remaining piece is the Cyberman Leader Helmet, which we’re expecting in the second quarter this year.
Galactic Gentlefolk!
We would like to thoroughly congratulate the glorious artisans and scientific titans at the Goliathon plant on having delivered the final 400 Goliathon 83 — Miniature Edition! Which means you have your chance to complete your set! These mouthwateringly miniscule weapons of mouse destruction really are the dog’s private parts. It also fills us with anticipation that a distinct humming sound has recently been emanating from the miniaturisation department. Could it really be that the initial trio soon may be joined by others? Who dares to hope?
Cocky
The Lord of insatiable trophy aggregation — Cockswain — is up to his usual under-handed trickery. You may already have spied the celluloid we’ve acquired? No? Well you should — it’s a veritable bonanza of bad taste. Please help us figure out what it all means. We’re baffled.
Tally-Ho from some of our Blunderbuss Patrons
Since the first few batches of hermetically sealed crates of Unnatural Selectors have reached their blood-thirsty new households, we’ve heard back from some of the survivors. It is obvious that this fine clientele take their sports-shooting very seriously. To arm yourself with an Unnatural Selector is not merely a disdainful nod in the direction of Darwin, the naturalist rapscallion, but of course the ultimate expression of good breeding and taste!
So after you cast your eyes longingly at the playthings of the well-heeled and well-armed — why not go check out the Miniature F.M.O.M. and the Miniature Goliathon. They still pack a better punch than a slap in the face with a wet Thrusk!
Cheerio,
William
Dr. William Young
Archivist and Historian for Dr. Grordbort’s Estate
What do girls like? The first things that come to your mind may be: clothes, hair, make up and fashion. And you would be right. Most girls DO enjoy these things, and it would be foolish to ignore that fact. But who only likes one thing, right? The world often forgets that girls love art, sports, music, culture, animals, learning… the list is infinite! And, sadly, sometimes girls forget that, too. So why can’t girls be cute, stylish, cool, AND smart, empowered and a little different?
They can. Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls offers the best of both worlds for girls. Fun with trendy, funky clothes and hair styles AND a wide variety of personalities, nationalities and outside interests. Each character has a specific activity she loves and accessories and wardrobe that correspond. They are each individually adorned with a personal symbol and color scheme that define her and her life style.
So, there’s a girl for everyone! All you have to do is figure out… What Planet Are You From?
About the Creator:
Lauren Faust has been a success in the animation industry for 12 years both as an artist and a writer. Her most recent endeavors have been as Head Writer and Supervising Producer for husband Craig McCracken’s award-winning hit series Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends on Cartoon Network. For her work on Foster’s, Lauren has received nominations for four Emmy and three Annie Awards. Previously, she had lent her talents to the popular cartoon series, feature film and marketing sensation The Powerpuff Girls and as an animator on such feature films as The Iron Giant and Cats Don’t Dance. All the while she has been an avid toy collector with a particular interest in the beloved toys of her childhood, including My Little Pony and Strawberry Shortcake. Her greatest goal as an artist is to offer up to little girls the kind of joy and inspiration she experienced as a child, with images of girls and women as positive, self-affirming, active, individualistic, fun, and even a little edgy.
The cosmic Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls website is aimed at, but not limited to, preteen girls. It offers up profiles of the Galaxy Girls, a shop full of t-shirts and other fun merchandise, Mother Earth (aka Lauren Faust)’s blog, the Solar Sisterhood newsletter, and a link to the Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls Etsy shop.
Girlactic Greetings Earthlings!
Welcome the The Solar Sisterhood on Etsy! The only place in the universe to find hand made items featuring Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls, a completely independent project by animator, Lauren Faust. Lauren is so far unwilling to compromise the quality of design of her characters to have them mass produced, so she lovingly makes all her toys by hand, and all her other products independently. She sincerely hopes you enjoy them!
A single, long lost set of The Last Unicorn concept art has been discovered in storage and is being auctioned this week on eBay
In 2007 Conlan Press published a limited 500-copy edition of Hidemi Kubo’s 1979 concept paintings from the animated Last Unicorn. There were five pictures in the complete set: The Last Unicorn, The Red Bull, The Lady Amalthea, Mommy Fortuna, and The Full Cast.
They sold out of all the complete sets very quickly, as well as all the individual prints of The Lady Amalthea, the Last Unicorn, and The Full Cast.
However — last week a single complete set (#295) turned up in some old convention boxes. This is the very last one there is, and the only way you can get any of the three sold-out pictures.
The set is up for auction on eBay until 8:20 AM on Sunday, March 1st, with the same starting price that the complete sets originally sold for: $75.
Huzzah! Less than three months after putting out the Mystery Science Theater 3000: 20th Anniversary Edition box set, Shout! Factory has followed up with Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XIV.
From 1988 to 1999, the cast of Mystery Science Theater 3000 skewered B-movies from their extraterrestrial orbit. Now the revolving crew of the Satellite of Love returns in the awe-inspiring 14th collection of their most hilarious episodes. Join Joel, Mike, Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot as they supply their own playful brand of commentaries on some of cinema’s most misunderstood “masterpieces.”
The alleged masterpieces are Season 1’s The Mad Monster, Season 4’s Manhunt in Space, Season 10’s Soultaker, and Season 10’s Final Justice (“starring” legendary antagonist of the show Joe Don Baker, who also got roasted in Season 5’s Mitchell). Current IMDb ratings for the four movies are 2.8, 2.1, 1.8, and 1.5 out of 10, dismal scores which promise a banquet of MST3K riffing material. The packaging, slipcased DVD slim cases with illustrated movie poster art covers, is exactly the same as in the first Shout! Factory set, which gives the option of storing the DVD sets in their cardboard slipcases or taking the individual titles out to shelve them by season or other preference. Mini-posters of the DVD covers are included again, and each disc continues to have a different animated menu that ties in with the film it precedes. Bonus content features a brand-new interview with Soultaker star and MSTie favorite Joe Estevez, in which Estevez proves himself to be an extremely good sport about the ribbing he got for Werewolf and Soultaker; a brand-new interview with Final Justice writer, producer, and director Greydon Clark, who masterfully rationalizes getting the MST3K treatment; Mike, Tom and Crow’s appearance on ESPN Classic’s Cheap Seats without Ron Parker; and the original Mad Monster trailer.
Most excitingly, as was revealed in a press release late last year, the Volume XIV box set is comprised entirely of episodes that have never been released before. Previously, fans had access to these films solely through TV syndication and an online network of tape trading that was encouraged by Comedy Central in its “Keep Circulating the Tapes” campaign. For viewers who have only seen grainy bootleg copies of Volume XIV‘s four episodes, many generations removed from the original recordings, it’s a real treat to finally see them in first-run quality. Hopefully this trend continues, allowing MST3K home libraries to further upgrade their old, degraded tapes to a more modern and watchable format.
It will certainly be interesting to see what the themes of upcoming box sets will be. More “previously unreleased” collections? Polled favourites? Holiday sets? A special edition of Season 3’s Santa Claus Conquers the Martians and Season 5’s Santa Claus, complete with an appropriately tacky ornament, would be an obvious possibility, as would a complete set of the MST3KShorts. Shout! Factory is open to any suggestions, so e-mail them your lists of box-set-worthy episodes and help keep the Movie Sign plugged in.
Sign up at GetBack.com, sister company and collaborator of Shout! Factory, for nostalgic doses of pop culture every weekday.
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GetBack.com is the only online community and pop-culture destination built around the music, movies, games, and events you love. We’re a bunch of pop culture freaks dedicated to wakin’ up memories of the past while connecting to the best of the present.
We started our company in 2007, after we (most of us are veterans of iFilm, Spike, Rhino, and Shout! Factory) realized there weren’t any Web sites that acted our age or featured our favorite stuff from the past while keeping current on the best in music, movies, and entertainment. Basically, we wanted to meet more people like us.
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Our flagship show, Retro Minute, hosted by our own Shawn Amos. It’s a daily blast to the past.
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Discovery Bay Games brews up more fun with Potions -- A Wizard’s Apprentice Game
Discovery Bay Games brewed up another magical batch of fun with their game Potions — A Wizard’s Apprentice Game. In Potions, the players are apprentices competing to become a wizard. The first apprentice to complete the potion assignment gets two Class Credit tokens. The first apprentice to collect five Class Credit tokens wins the game.
Potions uses a combination of dice and cards to build these potions. The cards are shuffled and each player is dealt four cards. The remaining cards are placed face down in the center of the players to create a draw pile. Then the dice are rolled to determine what kind of potion you have to brew up. There are three kinds of potions, six ingredients, and three types of applications of the potion. The first dice tells you what kind of potion you are making: Love, Wisdom, or Transforming. The second die is the first ingredient: Eye of Newt, Tooth of Dog, or Toe of Frog. The third die is the second ingredient: Lizard’s Leg, Wool of Bat, or Fenny Snake. The fourth die represents the application of the potion: Drink, Powder, or Ointment.
At the beginning of each hand, the player draws a fifth card from the deck in an attempt to match four cards with the dice. The player must then discard one of their cards so that their hand is back at four cards by the end of their turn. The card is placed face up in a discard pile beside the draw pile. If it is an action card, the action is done on the player of your choice. If the player does not have all four ingredients, their turn ends and the next player draws a card.
The action cards are fun ways to thwart your opponents’ success. Merlin’s Roll allows you to re-roll one Potion Elements die. Change allows to you change any element die to whatever you like. Take allows you to steal a card from another apprentice, forcing them to draw a replacement card from the draw pile and Spilled Cauldron forces a player to lose all of their cards and draw an entire new hand from the draw pile. After each successful hand, the winner collects 2 Class Credit tokens and the dice are rolled again for the next round.
Another twist on the game is the Apprentice Challenge. If you have at least one Potions Class Credit token, you can challenge any other player that you will have more matching ingredients than them in the next hand. If you don’t have more than them at the end of the hand, you lose a Class Credit token. If you do have more than them, you receive a Class Credit token even if you don’t win the round.
One point of confusion in the gameplay is setting down matching ingredients. The instructions say that you can set your matched ingredients face down on the playing surface so you are only holding the unmatched ingredients in your hand. The cards that are set down are still considered to be part of your hand, though, so when another player gets a steal card, these cards would be the obvious targets to take. The instructions don’t specify if they can be taken or if they are safe. We chose before a few games not to lay down cards, so as to randomize success when the steal card is played.
The box has a molded insert that neatly and securely holds all of the game pieces, and is small enough to store on an average bookshelf. The large dice are easy to read and the cards are thick, coated, and seem to be highly durable for many years of fun game play. Perfect for the fantasy lover, Potions is fun and fast-paced. While it doesn’t have a strong educational value, it might help younger players to understand the concept of mixing ingredients to make something new.
The game includes:
52 Playing Cards
4 Potion Elements Dice
20 Potion Class Credit Tokens
1 Potion Class Credit Token Bag
1 Cauldron Shaker Cup
