Toy Soldiers 3: WWII Gurkhas and Brit Aircrew

The WWII Gurkhas were British allied troops from Nepal.  They’re well-known for their ferocity.  That’s about all I know about them.  These guys were also one of my favorite armies to play with.  They’re well-detailed, though not terribly imaginative their poses.  They are of the slightly larger scale. 

Don’t they look fierce?  Who wouldn’t want these guys on their side?  They were always on my preferred side in toy solider battle, though the outcome was never predetermined.  Their machine gunner was holding the largest weapon of any of my armies.  Speaking of details, these dudes all carry the Gurkhas’ signature weapon, kukri, the big angled knife (except for their commander).    

 

And we go from the warriors to the mechanics.  (There was no good way of breaking up these armies for posts.)  The WWII British Aircrew was the largest army set I had.  I traded for them from a “friend” up the street from where I lived.  I don’t remember what I traded.  I also don’t remember why on earth I got these.  They’re great if you have an airfield with some H/O scaled Spitfires.  They’re not so great for pitched toy soldier battles. 

 

What’s truly puzzling is that this was the second time I’d gotten an aircrew set.  Before this, I’d bought a WWII German Luftwaffe Crew.  I don’t know why.  We all make questionable decisions at times.  After I had traded my “friend” for the Brits, I noticed later my Luftwaffe guys had suddenly disappeared.  I did not lose troops.  No man left behind; I counted my troops after every battle.  I can’t officially blame this person for what might have been a coincidence, but it was real suspicious.  (I was also missing a couple of my favorite Afrika Korps troops, as well.  I’m suddenly getting angry again.)      

All I had left of the Luftwaffe was the box and a couple of figures.  Those are the blue figures in the picture.  Quality-wise, the RAF figures are generally very imaginative and dynamic.  Technically, they’re messy, not to mention they’re kind of weak in places and easily broken.  The Luftwaffe guys were mostly better quality from what I remember.     

 

Thankfully, the bicyclists have stayed together.  There’s a porter with a cart, which is kind of cool.  The red thing in the bomb cart, I think, is a Lite Brite piece.  I don’t remember how I got that, since I didn’t have a Lite Brite set.     

Here’s a view of the pilots, a nurse, a security guard, a bicyclist, and a guy checking a camera.  If you’ve got an airfield, it would be well populated with all of these aircrew figures.  I seem to recall that the guy I got these from was using his with a train set.  And that’s the reason I still have these.  I’ve just about given up on my long-standing desire to have a train set (because I don’t have a house), but I’m keeping them just in case.      

 

The guy did sort of teach me how to play D&D.  If he did steal my figures, I can maybe spot him them for services rendered in giving me a new hobby.  I guess it was worth it.  

Toy Soldiers 2: WWII Brits and Friends

I started off with small scale encounters when I just had a couple of different armies.  Eventually, I had hundreds of troops and set up giant battle scenes in my bedroom.  I used my Navarone playset (which worked really well with the small scale figures) as a fortress.  Later, I added Castle Greyskull (which didn’t work as well with them) as part of the battle scenes.  I even made some Imperial Walkers out of some little boxes.  (These were later destroyed with fireworks.) 

 

At one point, I took over the spare bedroom with a giant creation called Imperium.  I used a bunch of boxes to make something of a series of connected islands with structures on them.  My favorite was large warehouse building with lots of places for ambushes.  Later, I turned one of the islands (large boot box) into a giant spaceship.  I called it Nostromo.  Trust me it was impressive.  (I wish I had pictures of any of this stuff.)  I had a weird little dinosaur creature that became the Alien hunting soldiers in the ship.  (Calling the thing a Xenomorph would be stretching it.)    

 

Okay, enough nostalgia, back to the review.

 

Those are WWII Australian Infantry on the left wearing the natty hats.  They’re figures with good sculpts and very dynamic.  There’s lots of personality in them.  To the right are WWII British Paratroopers.  You can see that they’re slightly larger in scale.  The detailing is good, but the poses are fairly generic.  They came with a mortar crew, a couple of landing parachutists, and a supply canister.

 

    

Here’s a mixed shot with the Paratroopers along with the WWII British Commandos (wearing the caps).  The Commandos (along a set of Germans) were the first armies I got and I enjoyed them immensely.  They have quite a bit of personality (and a kayak), however they are technically kind of sloppy with extra plastic fringes sticking out on them.        

I never saw any WWII US Army Infantry, or if I did, I passed them over.  I’m pretty sure I would have gotten some.  Here’s a mixed group of Aussies and WWII US Marines.  The Marines are also mixed in terms of quality.  Some of the troops are from a generic mold (the shooting rifleman, the bazooka man, and the submachine gunner).  I know this because I had a set of these kind of miniature troops when I was younger. 

 

The others are from a different mold (the two grenade men and the crouching rifleman).  They are more detailed (though the others are pretty good) and more dynamic in poses.  Both types are also well-made.       

Here’s another shot of just the more detailed Marines and the Commandos and a Paratrooper.  The Marines came with a little inflatable raft.  I bought them from the Kaybee toy store in the mall rather than the hobby store.  I mention this mostly because these figures were once more ubiquitous.  

Toy Soldiers 1: Waterloo Troops

(Part 2 of my comic review will come maybe next week.  I didn't want to reschedule seven posts.  I'm being lazy here, I admit.  I shouldn't have scheduled so far out when I've probably got more weekend sports reports to post.)

I love Toy Soldiers.  I had a bunch in several different sizes, including the large scale ones.  I had the standard green troops and some others in that size.  My best Christmas present ever was receiving the Guns of Navarone playset in 1975.  I still have it and even still have some of the soldiers with it.  At some point, I’ll take some pictures of it.  It is magnificent. 

 

And I had these small scale soldiers, of which I’ve kept a bag full.  When I was a kid, I had a friend who had these and introduced me to this scale.  There was a bit of a toy soldier arms race amongst myself and a couple of other kids in the neighborhood.  That was why I had some of the large soldiers, because I was in competition with another kid.  I couldn’t compete with him though.  After seeing my Navarone, he had his dad make him soldier mountain out of blocks.  Neither of us could compete with another kid, who had piles of Star Wars figures.  He could reenact the Battle of Hoth with several Walkers.        

 

These small troops are H/O scale, that is to say they’re roughly toy railroad scale.  They were sold in my area at a local hobby shop.  They came in little boxes with maybe 48 soldiers or less, if there special pieces inside.  They were displayed on a spinner rack and produced by the model company Airfix.  Most of the ones I bought were WWII era.  There were others available that I remember, such as Indians and even astronauts.  They must not have been terribly expensive, since I got a bunch of them.

 

I kept them in their boxes and kept careful track of them.  Over the years, the boxes came apart.  I kept the front covers with the army paintings for a while, but eventually dispensed with them.  I’m sorry.  This would have been a cooler series with pictures of the boxes with the action painting on the front and the painting guide on the back.  I never thought about painting them.  (A Warhammer modeler might balk at trying to paint these troops.)  It seemed like an impossible task as a child and still as an adult.  I sold off most of the soldiers later and only kept the ones I liked or had plans for.  

 

   

I haven’t seen any of these toy soldiers at retail for a while.  Airfix still makes them.  I’d love some modern troops like Desert Storm US Army or Vietnam-era US Marines.  I look over the model section at Hobby Lobby whenever I’m there.  All they’ve got are the larger-sized figures in plastic bags, like cowboys and Indians or knights.  They’re kid’s toys, though not really at kid prices.  I did get some larger scale Lead soldiers at an Estate sale, but that’s the most I’ve been tempted to buy.

 

This intro has run overly long.  I’ve got more pictures, I swear.  First up, are my favorites: Napoleonic French Cavalry and Russian Grenadiers.  I’m sorry I didn’t set out all of the troops and carefully arrange them.  I literally did all of the pictures in a rush at work.  I don’t have any historical information on these armies, but I can tell you how I got them.  These troops were produced by Ertl/ESCI.  I haven’t entirely had success with this companies’ figures, but these are excellent.

 

I’ve always wanted a set of Napoleonic troops since reading a biography of Winston Churchill, where he played with them as a child.  I referred to them as “Wooden Soldiers.”    My parents probably would have obliged, just to keep me from continuing to ask for them every year at Christmas, but there was nothing like them to be had at retail. 

 

A decade or so later, I was at a toy store in El Paso with my best friend, Kyle, and we came upon piles of the toy soldier boxes, like the ones I’d bought as a kid.  (Him and his brother and sister collected piles of action figures, so he wasn’t interested.)  I had no money to purchase any and it would have been childish.  However, when Kyle petitioned for my help with his college accounting class in doing a practice set, I offered to do it in return for a set of Zulus and Zulu War British Infantry.  I should explain that we were fans of the TV mini-series, Shaka Zulu, at the time.  (This was in the 80’s.)

 

I did the set and Kyle bought me the figures.  I’m not sure if he said that that practice set was either the best grade he got in that class or the worst, but he dropped the class in any case.  I was slightly disappointed that the British troops were actually from another set, the Kyber Pass, as there were Sikh troops mixed in with them.  (No offense to the Sikhs.  I just wanted troops that were setting appropriate.  These guys are like from the movie, Gunga Din.  Boy, there’s a movie I’ll never get to see again.)  They were close enough. 

 

However, the Zulus turned out to be a titanic disappointment.  The figures were fine, but totally unassembled.  I don’t know what possessed the model company to make these things with the little bitty spears and shields all unattached.  With slightly different poses, surely most of these could have been molded in one piece.  It was a nightmare of nitpicking.  They wouldn’t stay together.  I had to glue them together, which didn’t work well.  Later, I used a little hot pen to weld them together, which still didn’t work well and I ruined a few in the process.  (If I still had them and wanted to paint them, I got a couple of Osprey books on the subject at the Estate sale.  They provide detailed army painting guides.)             

 

 

This is a long way to go to talk about troops from Waterloo.  I told Kyle about my travails with the Zulus and he must have felt bad.  For Christmas, I handed him Rush Limbaugh’s new book.  He handed me these Napoleonic troops.  My eyes lit up and I immediately embraced him to his shock.  He’d had no idea I’d been pining away for something like this since I was a child.  I must not have noticed them when we were at the toy store.  In any case, it was a great gift.  I set them up around the Christmas tree to mom’s disapproval.  “They’re like toy soldiers from the Nutcracker,” I said.

These are quite lovely in sculpt and details.  The poses are great.  Unfortunately, I missed getting the French cavalry commander in the pictures.  He’s standing beside his horse with his helmet off, so he’s not in an action pose.  These guys are all I ever wanted in toy soldiers.  Of course, I had gotten a bunch of other toy soldiers before I got to this point.  I’ll go over those next.  

NM State Aggies vs GCU Lopes Soccer 10-23-21

 

I had some choices to make for this Saturday night.  I was offered tickets to the local racetrack at work.  The Braves and the Dodgers were also playing in the National League Championship series.  The game was on cable, but I thought it would probably be carried on a Mexican station over the air.  The Braves were up 3-2, so this was a possible elimination game for the Dodgers.  However, I’d wanted to go see Aggie Soccer under their new lights this season.  Also, there was an impressive sounding giveaway for the game.  I asked Ron if he had a preference, since I was planning on going with him.  He was good either way.  I decided to go with the original plan.

 

We did get dinner beforehand.  I wanted to introduce Ron to the new local restaurant, Legend Burger, at the mall.  We ate back at my apartment so that I could use my bottle of ketchup on it liberally.  (I am a bit of a ketchup fiend.)  Ron made happy noises while eating his burger and kept complimenting it afterward.  I’d call that an endorsement.  He also suggested getting ice cream at PQ Treats for dessert.  I’ve trained him well.  Unfortunately, I got a Crème de Mint flavored Frozen Tornado.  About halfway through it, the mint started getting to me.  It was like eating menthol shaving cream with chocolate chips mixed in.  I wished I had a girlfriend with me, because I had the freshest mouth in town.

 

We got to the Soccer Complex about 45 minutes early.  In the parking lot, there were three tents set up with different groups of tailgaters.  That was a pretty good indication that there was going to be a good crowd.  The ticket tonight was $7.  I can’t quite figure out why it’s $5 sometimes and $7 other times.  Maybe they were hoping to soak some traveling GCU fans at tonight’s game.    

    

Whoa!  And I thought Aggie socks (4-17-21) were the best giveaway ever.  I saw some fans outside wearing the giveaway scarf and was already impressed.  Ron and I got ours after getting inside.  Originally, they’d said it was for the first 75 fans, but increased it to 200 before the game.  There were 200 happy fans there, including myself.  People in the main grandstand, which was already filling up, were wearing theirs.  We were certainly the nattiest-looking group of fans in the WAC.  Some kids had theirs tied up in complicated, but stylish knots.  I was somewhat aggravated that I had no idea how to make that knot.    

 

Inside also were two merch tents.  I’d never seen this before.  There was one run by the college bookstore and another run by a local business, Sports Accessories.  I went back and looked for that Rosie the Riveter-esqe “Guns Up” t-shirt that I’d seen at a previous game.  It wasn’t there.  I’m still not sure if it would look right on a guy, but it did look good.  There were t-shirt tosses into the crowd before each half.

 

Super fan, Tom, came in.  He was carrying a large signpost with him with Aggie signs on it.  It was maybe a little too much like carrying a cross.  Aggie Coach Baarts stood stoically by himself on the Aggie end of the field.  He watched the team warm up by the bench.  Iconic.  He seemed lost in thought.  How heck do we beat GCU?  They’re 12-2-2 and undefeated in conference.  In fact, they’d already beaten the Aggies on their field 6-0 a couple of weeks ago, which was part of three consecutive road losses leading up to this game.  However, the Aggies had a secret weapon tonight: the twelfth man.  The crowd would come into play as a factor. 

 

(Wait, how many players are there on field in soccer?  I don’t know.  You get the twelfth man analogy though, right?)

   

There were clouds over the mountains that were lit up pink and purple with the sunset.  The weather was extremely pleasant for tonight’s game with a cool temperature and no breeze.  It was nice to be out there without getting fried or rained on.  The field was nicely lit, as were the grandstands.  The areas directly north and south of the field were in near complete darkness.  If you wanted to attempt risky sex with your girlfriend behind a tree during a game, this would be the time to try it.  (I don’t know why I was thinking of that.)    

A really good crowd materialized for the game.  GCU did bring a group of fans, too. I didn’t see any of them wearing the Aggie scarves.  I’ve seen out-of-town fans pick up the free swag and posters (especially the kids), but generally not the ones of conference opponents.  The two support stands also held fans.  The south one had a guy with a drum.  This guy needs to be there for every game, because the drum corps did help with the cheering.  Ron also reported from walking around the complex later that there were a large number of kids up in the north corner playing. 

  

First Half

I start with the usual disclaimer that soccer is difficult to transcribe live.  Hopefully, I haven’t gotten too many names and plays misattributed.  The first action of the game started off with Aggie goalie, Makenna Gottschalk, kicking away a Lopes’ attack with 44’ left in the half.  The Aggies came right back.  42’ Loma McNeese was fed the ball twice in two attacks on the GCU goal.  40’ Bianca Chacon (the program makes her name look like Blanca, sorry) took a shot in the GCU box that went wide.  39’ Xitlaly got stripped of the ball in the Aggie box.  (She’s everywhere.)  Makenna had to fall on a shot.

 

We were getting some pretty good action here.  Grace Olson made a strong header shot at midfield.  The crowd applauded her hard head.  38’ the Aggies took a free kick just outside the GCU box.  Here was the first time the crowd got good and loud (and not the last).  Brooke Shultz’s shot went over the crossbar.  34’ Aggie defender Lece Aviles picked the pocket of a Lopes’ attacker.  The crowd cheered her.  GCU had a free kick right after, but it hit the Aggie defense wall.

 

Here was the first real trouble.  27’ a GCU attacker was briefly wide open in the Aggie box.  Immediately, two defenders converged on her and stripped her, but that was close.  The ball got back out to midfield, though not before four girls got knocked to the deck in two different incidents.  This lead to an Aggie corner, but nothing came of it.  25’ a GCU shot hit the scoreboard behind the Aggie goal.  Opposing players seem to take aim at it whether they mean to or not. 

 

24’ after a couple of good passes, Aggie Bianca took a light shot from the goalie’s right that was stopped.  20’ Makenna came out to take a free kick from the Aggie end of the field.  She got it to Loma, who took a shot that missed wide.  The little boy from the last game was back behind the Aggie goal retrieving ball again.  It was too cute.  He could just barely get his arms around the ball. 

 

18’ Grace missed a header that led to a GCU shot on goal.  Makenna took a flying one-handed punch at the ball to deflect it.  The ball would have went right in without that effort.  16’ a GCU attack died in the Aggie box.  15’ a little kid suddenly charged out on to the field with his father running after him.  The crowd got a chuckle.  I wonder what the kid wanted?  14’ Loma took a shot.  The GCU goalie, Jordan Ferguson, fell on it.  13’ the Lopes and the Aggies started sending in subs. 

 

Events quieted down a bit.  7’ an errant shot went into the Aggie bench.  3’ more Aggie subs.  The drum crops picked up in intensity.  Meanwhile, Ron was obsessively checking his phone for updates from the Braves/Dodgers playoff game.  I approve of this, but I did tell him to chill out and enjoy the game in front of him.  Of course, I checked score myself.  It was 4-1 Atlanta in the fourth.  When the PA started the 10-second countdown at the end of the half, a bunch of little kids joined in.     

   

Halftime

We were nil-nil at the half.  The crowd cheered.  Given the competition, this was actually an encouraging development.  So far, the Aggies had 1 listed shot on goal and the Lopes 2.  There was another appearance by the delivery bots.  One of them attempted to take a shot on another one sitting in the goal . . . very slowly.  The PA girl was amused.  The Aggie players were still on field and looked on.  I couldn’t tell what their expressions were from across the field, so I don’t know their opinion of the spectacle.  Coach Baarts chose to instruct the team outside, while the Lopes went to the locker room.  My tongue was still a bit numb from the mint.  Some little girls in the grandstand danced when the PA played YMCA.

 

There was another t-shirt toss right before the second half started.  The Marketing guy gave his last one to a pretty blonde in front.  I’d noticed her and her nice-looking friends earlier.  They’d brought cowbells and cheered enthusiastically.  They seemed familiar, but I didn’t recognize them.  Finally, I realized they were former Aggie Soccer players.  From looking at a picture roster from a couple of years ago after I got home, I think they were Kelly Burton, Jess McDow, and Kyleigh Cox.  Nice of them to come out and support the team.  I got a look at the t-shirt from a little girl wearing one.  It had what looked like a kid’s drawing of Pistol Pete on it.  Kinda cute.

 

Second Half

Lope Renee Sainz ran over the near side of the field before play started.  She smiled and waved to probably family in the crowd.  I’d noticed her earlier.  She worried me because she’d been open in the Aggie box a couple of times.  44’ once again, Makenna had to stop an attack right after the whistle sounded.  43’ there was a GCU free kick outside the Aggie box.  It was a powerful shot.  Makenna had to jump and use two hands to knock it over the net. 

 

With the former players, one of the brought back cans of Pistol Pete’s 1888 Beer, the official beer of the Aggies.  Or is it Coors Light?  Never mind.  This also answered my question as to whether they were serving beer tonight or not.  I don’t think they can serve during day games, so that’s one way to get better crowds at night.  I think they had vendors in the stands for the Lobo game earlier in the season.  They should have had these lights up from the beginning of the program.

 

39’ another Aggie attack.  Loma took a shot that was turned away.  37’ there was a questionable foul call.  The crowd and Coach Baarts were in an uproar.  Honestly, having seen the whole game, the refs seemed to do a pretty good job of staying out of the way and making the right calls.  35’ there was a chip shot pass at the GCU goal.  Xitlaly was just late getting there for an easy tap in. 

 

34’ Makenna had to tip away a shot from a GCU corner.  32’ a dangerous GCU crossing shot forced Makenna to make a dive to stop it.  31’ there were too many close calls in succession to not get a payoff.  A GCU corner resulted in a scrum at the net.  Hannah Edwards kicked it in for a 1-0 Lopes lead.  (I had to get the name from the official game recap.  If you didn’t see the opposing player score, you’re unlikely to hear the PA announcement.) 

 

Now here was the advantage of having a large crowd (with alcohol served) in this situation.  They got louder.  The former players started clanging their cowbells.  Tom piped up even more.  (He’d been going the whole time, of course.  The girls finally noticed him and seemed amused.)  The Aggies went on full attack immediately.  28’ an Aggie free kick ended with Hannah firing one into the side of the Lopes’ goal.  26’ another Aggie free kick led to Mya Hammack kicking a roller that was caught.  24’ the Aggies got a corner kick.  The crowd began banging on the metal stands.  However, the kick resulted in a GCU breakaway.  Lece broke up the counterattack.

 

20’ Hannah led an Aggie breakaway.  The Aggies were all in and this led to a counter that left Makenna pretty much unguarded.  She had to kick the ball out-of-bounds from the attack.  19’ both teams put in subs.  Another Aggie corner had the stands shaking again.  Emma Smith took a shot that went over the GCU net.  Wait.  Hold on a minute.  I have a call.  “Yes.”  It’s Centurylink wanting to confirm my appointment for Monday set for between 9:00am and 7:00pm.  Sure.  (They’d call twice Sunday to reconfirm.  I hope they’re this diligent in actually fixing my phone.) 

 

15’ another Aggie free kick from outside the GCU box.  Brooke took another shot that flew way over the net.  She seemed disappointed, even watching from across the field.  13’ more Aggie subs came in.  Brooke came out and the coach talked to her.  She is a freshman.  I think Corey Kizer is still out from injury from that last home game.  I wonder if Brooke is in for her.  12’ Mya penetrated the GCU box with some great dribbling.  Loma took a pass from Mya and buried one into the top left corner.  1-1 We’re tied!  The Aggies’ offensive intensity paid off.        

 

10’ Emma took a long shot on target that was caught.  9’ GCU came back with a free kick that went over the net.  8’ the Aggies got a free kick.  Loma kicked a weak one that was caught.  6’ more GCU subs.  2’ the drum crops and Tom led the crowd in a cheer.  1’ Ron pointed out the glow of the moon rising over the mountains behind some clouds.  On field, Makenna made a dive stop of a sure game -winner by GCU.  The Aggies launched one more ferocious attack before time expired.  Ron was muttering encouragement to the girls.  I’m not sure if he was really rooting for them, or he just didn’t want overtime or a draw.

 

First Overtime

I suppose it’s a bit of a spoiler saying, “First Overtime.”  (I’ve probably already dropped some hints on the outcome anyway.)  Tom came down and gave one of his handmade signs to one of the former players.  She was very pleased with it, and the girls took selfies with it.  9’ left in the 10 minute period, the Aggies got a corner.  7’ GCU took a shot from the left wing that went way over the goal.  5’ a GCU player hit the deck.  The former Aggie players immediately called it a flop and mercilessly ridiculed her.  (That 1888 beer packs a punch.)  Makenna blocked the resulting free kick.  A follow up shot went wide.  2’ a GCU free kick sailed way out.  1’ Bianca took a shot that was caught.  Loma made another one that just missed.   

 

Second Overtime

The crowd pounded the stands to the beats of I Love It by Icona Pop played by the PA.  It’s like a Women’s sports anthem at NMSU.  The Aggies gathered in an energetic-looking huddle.  I can guess what the coach was saying, “You’ve come this far, why not win it?”  8’ Makenna caught a high bouncer on a long free kick.  5’ the Aggies sent in some subs.  Lots of girls were getting knocked into the ground.  3’ GCU got a free kick on another play that looked like a flop.  An offsides call stopped their attack.  2’ Lece broke up an attack in the Aggie box.

 

The final minute came.  GCU took a corner kick.  Baarts was screaming on the sideline.  The ball was momentarily loose in the box.  Makenna corralled it.  The Aggies counterattacked and rushed the GCU box.  The crowd’s cheering reached a fever pitch. It all happened so fast with everyone standing and jumping.  I saw the ball hit the crossbar and deflect straight down.  GCU goalie Jordan desperately tried to keep the ball from going over the line, but her and ball crossed it.  Aggies win 2-1!  The time on the clock read 14 seconds.

 

All of the girls ran out and dogpiled their hero.  I had no idea who scored the winner until I saw the team Twitter later.  Grace Olson had charged downfield and took a long shot from well outside the GCU box.  Ron said that the ref tried to call a foul before the shot, presumably on GCU, but gave up over the crowd roar after the goal.  I give the fans in general an assist on this goal.  They (we) willed it to happen.           

 

Grace Olson gets the obvious gameball for kicking the winner.  Makenna Gottschalk saved the game several times over with her goaltending.  She was inspired.  GCU probably should have had another easy victory.  I doubt they were intimidated by the fans, but the Aggies, wanting revenge for being humiliated in Phoenix, seemed determined not to lose in front of a large home crowd.  Is this Aggie Soccer’s biggest victory ever?  I’m not enough of an historian to know, but it’s certainly a big one.  

 

After the game, the girls danced out to the stands to salute the fans.  They definitely appreciated the crowd tonight.  Ron then told me he’d heard Mya out on the field at the start of the second half when he was out walking around.  A Lopes player had called an out ball theirs, though it wasn’t.  Mya made a hand sign and said, “Shut it!  Are you the ref?”  Ron appreciated her attitude.  

 

Ron and I checked back to the baseball game.  It was in the ninth with the Braves up 4-2.  We got back to my apartment.  I told him to come in and we’d see if the game was on a Mexican station.  It was and was coming in reasonably well.  We watched the last two outs.  The happy Atlanta fans celebrated getting one step closer to their ultimate revenge on the Commissioner Manfred for taking away the All-Star Game from them.  I didn’t pick the Braves or the Astros to get to this place, so I don’t have a clue who will win. 

 

I missed out going to a live race and an MLB playoff game, but I think I made the right decision.  It was a great game and it was good to be out with a big, enthusiastic crowd.  Not to mention, I got this nifty scarf.  I got to see the elimination of the Dodgers anyway, so it all worked out well.

 

While starting to write this, Aggie Football versus Hawaii came on the radio from Hawaii.  It started at 10:00pm finished a bit after 1:00am.  I was up anyway and listened to the whole thing.  The game actually moved along pretty well.  The boys lost 48-34.  The Aggies tied the game up after being down three touchdowns, but a couple of interceptions run back for touchdowns and a couple of big defensive breakdowns doomed the effort. 

 

I wish I hadn’t missed the pregame.  I would have liked to have heard an interview with AD Moccia.  This week, Conference USA started with 14 members.  By Friday, they were down to five after a wave of defections.  UTEP is still in, but they are 900 miles away from their nearest conference opponent.  There’s some momentary hope that the Aggie Football team might be able to slip back into a conference finally and stop being independent.  We’ll see how this shakes out. 

Comics and Movie Review: Superheroes and Knights Part 1

What better way to spend a day of vacation than to go to an auto shop to get your coolant changed?  I’d have paid for privilege.  And I did.  It was over $100 even with a $10 coupon.  What better way to get that taste out of your mouth than to go to Day’s Hamburger in the Downtown Mall for a delicious Great Day Burger with an order of Sweet Potato Fries?  It did make me feel better.  Their burgers are malformed and thin with not the freshest bun and yet, every time they are delicious.  Just looking at it, it has no business being any good.  I even turned down finally trying a pub burger at the Rad Retrocade for another Great Day.       

 

What better way to further numb yourself than to buy some comics?  I’d been planning on going to Coas Used Bookstore for some time and had a box full of books to trade in.  I was glad to finally move that out of my apartment.  I noticed a DCU Justice League movie right off the bat in the DVD section and picked it up.  At the register, they mentioned that they were selling their DVD’s 3 for $10, but I didn’t bother going back to look for more. 

 

They’d rearranged the used comic bins there by title, which made them easier to search.  I just kind of skimmed them and instantly found four interesting-looking comics.  They’d moved the trades to a shelf nearby.  On a day when I hadn’t just spent $100, I might have picked up the $40 Dungeons & Dragons Fell’s Five Compendium.  I’ve read several of these and they are easily the best of the D&D comics, but had the misfortune of being tied to Fourth Edition.  It was big and thick and I think I hadn’t read half of it.  I’ll keep it in mind for the future, if nobody else snags it.

 

The actual main reason I was at the Downtown Mall was to go to Zia Comics.  I wanted the next issue of Wonder Girl, since I’d enjoyed the one I’d gotten last month.  I thought it was supposed to come out today, but it hadn’t.  A couple of other things I was looking for weren’t there either.  They were rearranging their trades when I was there, which was a good thing because they were badly arranged, but I wasn’t able to look through all of them.  I thought I was going to get shutout, before I noticed a new Wonder Woman issue done by the Wonder Girl artist.  Close enough. 

 

With that setup, we’ll start the reviews.

 

Guardians of the Galaxy #10

I looked at this twice before I was convinced that I hadn’t read this issue before.  With multiple covers on some of these issues, it’s easy to get confused and buy the same issue twice (as I’ve done).  I’ve had so little luck buying Guardians of the Galaxy books.  Apart from Communications Breakdown (which gave me exactly what I wanted from a Guardians story), it’s been nothing but disappointments otherwise.

 

This issue continued that streak.  Angela and Gamora beat some aliens.  That’s it.  That’s the whole story.  It’s almost in real time, too.  The less than 10 minutes it took me to read this is about the amount of time it took for the beat down to happen.  Very efficient.  The artwork is good, but for a comic starring two hot chicks, I’m not seeing anything in here I plan on trying to draw myself.  That’s bad.  I am told Brian Michael Bendis is a great comic book writer, but all I’ve seen out of him is decompressed crap.  The guy can’t write dialogue to save his life. 

 

Green Lantern #75

And on that note.

 

“I’m going to live up to the name Green Lantern.  If I truly want to be a hero, this is my chance to prove it . . . I will save this city . . . I will . . . Because I believe in myself . . . Because I’m a hero . . . When I was a kid, I never could decide what I wanted to be when I grew up.  Now I know.  I’m Green Lantern.  I’m a hero.”

Stunning, isn’t it.  Never in all literature has a fictional character had more internal motivation.  I enjoyed this issue for all the wrong reasons.  I’m not really familiar with the Kyle Rayner Green Lantern, so I wanted to check this out.  I know he’s fan favorite.  Flipping through this before reading it, it certainly looked comic book-y cool.  There’s Green Lantern, Adam Strange, and the Darkstars involved in some big fight.  I know of the Darkstars, but nothing about them, so I can learn something about them, too.  Cool.

 

The story is as promised.  Ranagar is being attacked by Darkseid’s here-to-fore unknown son.  (I’m sure the only person more shocked by this revelation is Darkseid himself.)  He actually does have motivation to attack Planet Rann for own plans.  There’s a big dramatic fight scene.  The ending is reasonably clever and makes sense.  There are consequences as the Darkstars appear to disband at the end. 

 

What went wrong?  It was the dialogue mostly.  Kyle had this continuous internal monologue going where he’s explaining himself and his motivations.  No, that’s what villains do, but they do it out loud.  They also do it better than Kyle was doing it.  Spider-Man is about the only character that can get away with this kind of Shakespearian monologue.  When he does it, Peter is remembering his motivation to be a hero.  Here’s a clue, his motivation to be a hero isn’t just because he tautologically wants to be a hero.  I feel like I actually wish I knew less about this character now, while simultaneously not understanding anything about him.

 

A few other notes.  The artwork is great.  No problem there.  I’m not a fan of the Green Lantern uniform change.  This story apparently takes place during some interlude where Kyle was the only Green Lantern.  I think we could all guess that wouldn’t last.  Adam Strange, even though he’s Rann’s defender, just basically cameo’s in this.  Ron Marz, the writer (snicker), didn’t seem to know what to do with him.  John Stewart, former Green Lantern, led the Darkstars.  (I still know nothing about the team.)  Donna Troy was also on the team in yet another twist in the original Wonder Girl’s tortured history.  (She was Wonder Girl on the Teen Titans.  It made sense, then somehow, it all went wrong and weird.)       

 

It’s not like I haven’t written some embarrassing, cringe-y, things (all the time).  But . . .

 

“Save the city.  Be the hero, Kyle.”  “I’m . . . not sure if I can, John.  Saving an entire city.  It might be more than I’ve got left . . . but I’m sure as hell gonna try.”

 

I feel better about myself, now.

Magnus Robot Fighter & Nexus #1

Here’s where I regret that I only flipped through that bin of used comics, instead of carefully going through them.  (I was hungry.  I hadn’t eaten lunch yet.)  This is an easy review: It’s a comic book with Steve Rude’s artwork.  Need I say more?  I have no familiarity with the Magnus Robot Fighter character, but Mike Baron has written him and his girlfriend a lot like Nexus and his girlfriend, Sundra.  It works for me, since I don’t know any better.  This reads like a good Nexus morality tale.  Nexus himself doesn’t show up until the end.  This leaves me hoping Part 2 of this story is somewhere in the bins or I’m not going to know how this thing ends.

Part 2