My Days Off: Gaming

By Geeky Gem

On the days when I not working I love to kick back and either read a good book or comic. When I am not doing that I am gaming and yes Kirkiechick is not the only gaming girl here at All Geek to Me. I like nothing more to sit down and lose hours in a good game. Some of favourite games are the Lego ones.

At the moment I am playing two different ones, Harry Potter year 5-7 and Pirates of the Caribbean. However today I am going to talk to you about just Harry Potter. If any of you know me you will know I love Harry Potter and I have just finished reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. So when I got my X Box one of the games I got was Harry Potter years 5-7. I love these games, they can really have you addicted.

In years 1 – 4 you play through the first four Harry Potter movies and each of the key parts within the movies and books, you even get to play Qudditch during the first ear at Hogwarts. You get to brew potions and take on enemies from with in the movies. Watching the key story parts played out in Lego is not only really funny but really good as well, these games are planned out with fun in mind.

The first 4 years are all leading you to something big that comes up in next art of the story but if you have seen the movies or read the books you know what Harry must face.

Then you move on to the following year 5-7 with even more fun to be had as you race to save Hogwarts from Lord Voldemort, and did I mention there is a dragon. A Lego Dragon folks.

This one is harder but still as much fn as the other one. The thing I love about these games is that you have so much to do and so many things to collect that you get to play them over and oer again if you want to get all the extra things with in the game. If you have never played them but like the movies and te books then give them a go they really are fun.

TOP TOYS: PART TWO

By @hmsbeefnuts

Hello toy fans, and welcome back to Top Toys, part two. Last time we looked at some of my favourite childhood toys, Transformers, Turtles, Dino-Riders, WWF and Ghostbusters. A pretty great toy box worth of stuff, that I have very fond memories of. This time, we will go back in time to the first major toys craze I was part of, and forward in time to toys I was ‘too old’ to have, but wanted anyway. It is such a shame that most kids today think toys are for babies, and it’s all about video games. I know, I’ve asked some. Toys stimulate the imagination, and are great fun, lets hope that kids are still playing with Batman and Transformers a hundred years from now. So enough rambling, lets get involved with the toys!!!

HE-MAN

He-man was my first toy love. I had a load of He-man figures, and vehicles and monsters and play-sets, my favourite, was He-man on Battlecat. I loved Battlecat so much, still do. Who wouldn’t want to ride a gigantic green and yellow tiger into battle? The toys themselves all had the same body sculpts, to save money, but each had different accessories and head sculpts. The TV show was basically just an advert for the toys, which is no bad thing really. I can remember having horrendous ear ache whilst being in Cardiff with my Mum, and taking cover in Toys R Us, whilst a very loud and scary thunder storm happened all around us. To ease my pain, Mum bought me Buzz Off, a bee themed hero, awesome. I also remember for my birthday, picking up the Castle Greyskull play-set, and having to go to my Grandmothers, so excited, but could not play with it because it didn’t come with any figures, I had to wait till I got home. It was torture.

MASK

MASK, was pretty cool. A group of guys and gals, who fought the evil Venom with cars, trucks and bikes, that turned into other things like tanks, helicopters and boats, all armed to the teeth. My favourite MASK vehicle was a green motor bike that turned into a helicopter, so awesome, it is beyond my power to describe. Did I mention that MASK had their base in a hollowed out Volcano? Now you know. MASK figures were tiny, similar to the Dino-Rider humans/aliens, but that just meant they could interact with each other. Tooled up Dinos Vs. Transforming cars? Yes please.

LEGO

For it’s versatility alone, Lego is probably the greatest toy ever invented. Your options are only limited by your imagination. But, if you don’t fancy building your own entertainment, the Lego sets are some of the greatest things ever made. When I was young, we didn’t have Superhero Lego, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter or the like. We had Knights and Pirates, and these were my favourite sets to collect. Pirate Lego had brilliant ships and bases to build, and Knights had Castles and Robin Hood!! The sets I saw recently looked awesome, kids are spoiled these days I guess. My favourite Lego set was the Pirate Ship. It was so cool. The fact it can all work together with other Lego universes and sets is such a stroke of genius. Lego is awesome, and I want some right now.

JURASSIC PARK

Jurassic Park blew my mind, it is one of my most fond memories of seeing a film on an opening weekend. It was chaos at the old Cardiff ODEON that Saturday night I went to see it with the family, the kind of organised chaos I have only really experienced at Disneyworld. Everyone was buzzing. The film obviously was great, so good in fact that I wanted the next day to go immediately to a toy shop to buy every Jurassic Park toy I could lay my hands on. The Dinosaurs were beautifully sculpted and they looked awesome. The T-Rex in particular. I wish I had all these toys, but I have none, all gone to the great toy box in the sky…

MARVEL

I’ve always been a fan of superheroes, but apart from a a few Batman toys, and the odd Spider-Man, I never had a large collection of Comic Heroes. However, on my recent trip to Toys R Us, I noticed a vast selection of 3.5 inch Marvel Universe figures, and I couldn’t resist buying the four main Avengers. Why not? They look good on my shelf. Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America (WWII version) and Thor, they are lovely little things, well sculpted with great articulation and accessories. I had to stop myself at the four, I could have gone on and on, but I have bills to pay. These toys however are fantastic, with all kinds of famous and obscure characters being transformed into figure form. I know if I was a kid, I’d be all over these.

Wednesday Whimsy

By @hmsbeefnuts

Hello everybody, welcome to Wednesday Whimsy with me, Hmsbeefnuts. Time once more for me to collect some random thoughts, news stories and other things of note that have been happening around All Geek To Me, and the Geek world as a whole.

Firstly, on Thursday night, 24^th May, All Geek To Me hit a bit of a milestone. We had our 10,000^th view. Geeky Gem and I are very proud and excited at this seemingly unbelievable number. When we started, we didn’t know if anyone but us would read our blog, so we are very grateful indeed for everyone who has ever stopped by and especially if you came back.

 

Lets start with some big news in the Geek World that has occurred in the last week. Firstly, in the realm of Video games, there is exciting news for travellers in the realm of Skyrim. Bethesda is soon to launch a new patch that fixes a few problems with the game, but most importantly adds mounted combat!! I for one am very excited by this news. Mounted Combat will not only make riding a horse worthwhile, it will also full fill a personal dream of mine that I have had for more than a few years, to ride into a valley, straight into battle. I thought it would be in a Zelda game, but Skyrim will more than make up for it. This is big exciting news for me.

 

Secondly, big news in the comics world. Marvel Comics will publish a story soon that features the Marvel Universes 1^st Gay Marriage. Well done Marvel for supporting this important issue. I couldn’t say that the character who is getting married is a major one, but that hardly matters. Northstar is the character in question, a character who has been ‘out’ for a while, but has decided to make an honest man of his boyfriend and tie the knot. Once again this is good news for superhero comics, as they are finally catching up with things indie comics have been doing for a long time. Also, top marks for it being two gay male characters and not the usual hot lesbian couple.

 

That is not the only gay comic news this month. It has been revealed that a major DC character will also be revealed to be gay. The character has been described as male, and iconic, and there has been much talk over who it could be. My vote would go to recent Justice League member Cyborg, although I have heard whispers about one of the Flash character’s also. In any case, this is also good news for comic books embracing modern times, well done DC.

 

Finally, the big movie news this week was the delaying of one of the big summer movie releases, GI Joe: Retaliation. The studio has officially delayed the blockbuster in order to add 3D. Well I wish they wouldn’t. However, speculation on numerous websites states that there were other reasons for the delay. A very busy summer schedule has to be the main reason, as well as the fact that GI Joe was coming out between some huge superhero franchises. The Avengers has managed to remain top of the box office for three weeks, defeating the American release of Battleship, another Hasbro property. Spider-man and The Dark Knight Rises are out very soon, and there was surely fear that GI Joe would be lost in the superhero slug fest. I am very disappointed by this delay, as I was looking forward to seeing Joe quite a bit, despite an awful first movie. The added Rock and Bruce Willis factor made this an opening weekend watch for me. Well I guess I have to wait till March now, oh well.

One last thing, how cool are these? I want them badly.

Until next time, this hmsbeefnuts signing off.