Mobile Alternative Zero: Dino Strike

Today we will be using Mantis King's none LEGO review system.

The other day at WalMart I came across the Toy bins for under $10 Toys and came across an interesting blind ball purchase from Zuru toys, Dino Strike. I figure I snag two and check it out.

Is it below, at, or above $10 per Frame?

All this blind spheres were $5.97 That's not to bad of a price depending on what we get inside. +5 points

Orange Slices?

So the item inside comes in pieces split between these slices. The plastic quality seems decent and it very 'classic' solid dinosaur toy despite coming in pieces. I caught some trouble trying to put on the styg's legs and one of their hands seem backwards though. From my two it looks like they are all design with a head/tail wiggle mechanism.

Chilling before a fight...

Looking for Peaches...

Is it a good size to use in a game?Yes? Well the tail and head sort of make them almost too big so I say yes but probably should ignore the tail and head to focus on the body for measuring hits/attacks. +5 points.

How many removable parts does it have to represent systems? 

So looking at the pictures they all generally come with two blasters, a head armor and back armor for the blasters. Seems to be a few with only one blaster. So easily these two could be one Defense and 2 Range System of some kind so +5 points.

Does it have enough parts you can remove to represent White Dice damage?

This gets kind of tricky, the armor holding the spring blasters I call one white die then just tip it over for the last one or you could pop the head back off but it was a pretty tight fit so I be wary. Given this case we will go with 0 points for this one.

Over all this gets us a score of 15 points or A. I am tempted to go get more but it looks like I just be running range system armor only with them so most likely not but could fun.

LEGO Spider-man's Mini Spider Crawler 30451 Review for MF0

The Bag

Picked this up at Target in the Holiday section along with several others; behold LEGO posts from DCB! Is it still October? Who is haunting this once noble spaces? Alright let's get into the review.

Web Baller Frame

Can you build some sort of creation right away?

I built this little quad frame, surprised this set didn't include the circle plate with bars but seems the good new padlocks make them a bit unneeded if designed right. +5 points.

Parts 1

Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio? The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part

$3.99 / 73 = $0.05 per part! Very good deal indeed. +5 points

Parts 2

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?

The shear number of padlocks at the price point make this set worth it but the parts do lean toward quad or other such frames then the classic humanoids though. +5 points.

The Minifig

Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?

Another easy yes for +5 points.

The Build

Total: This is an easy A+ set just for the padlocks, the planned out build could easily become a frame itself with some other parts, almost a 'frame in a bag' but not quite there. Either way it be hard to pass up this set.

Please check out my other reviews and posts; if you like what I am doing and like to support make sure to check out my Patreon and Ko-fi links. If you are into RPGs then consider checking out my other Blog Shardfinder where I am exploring conversions from the Eberron Setting from WotC to bring it to Pathfinder Second Edition.

Frame Card

Character Concept: Starfinder - The Dual Pistoler

So a common thing I see come up in the Starfinder circles I frequent is a complaint about the lack of small arm support or the viability of a small arms focused character. Personally I think it a bit too much focus on Damage output within the community and can perfectly be done without Paizo adding anything new in. So to sort of make my case I have done a little test bed building of a concept and will present it below; Here be the Dual Pistoler!

Dual Pistols Lvl 1
Halfling outlaw solarian 1
CG Small humanoid (halfling)
Init +4; Perception +2
--------------------
Defense                        SP 7 HP 9 RP 3
--------------------
EAC 15; KAC 16
Fort +3; Ref +5; Will +3; +3 vs. fear effects
Defensive Abilities solar manifestation (solar armor)
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 30 ft.
Ranged azimuth laser pistol +6 (1d4 F; burn 1d4) or
   pulsecaster pistol +6 (1d4 E nonlethal)
Offensive Abilities black hole, supernova
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 10 (+0); Dex 18 (+4); Con 10 (+0); Int 10 (+0); Wis 11 (+0); Cha 14 (+2)
Skills Acrobatics +10, Athletics +6, Sleight Of Hand +8, Stealth +10; (reduce the DCs of Culture checks by 5 when recalling knowledge about the criminal underworld)
Feats Weapon Focus (small arms)
Languages Common, Halfling, Ysoki
Other Abilities halfling luck, sneaky, stellar mode
Other Gear second skin, azimuth laser pistol with 1 battery (20 charges), pulsecaster pistol with 1 battery (20 charges), credstick (150 credits)

Hero Lab and the Hero Lab logo are Registered Trademarks of LWD Technology, Inc. Free download at https://www.wolflair.com
Starfinder and associated marks and logos are trademarks of Paizo Inc., and are used under license.

I went a bit min/max with this because the goal is Full Attack with Small Arms which you still might dare to do here with Weapon Focus and Small Arms against EAC. The Solarian's Photon Attunement will help squeeze out a bit more damage as the Armor helps keep you Safe as you fight close enough to keep enemies in your first range increment and so you can rush in to use Supernova to hopefully end fights or damage a group.

What's next? How about Level 3!

Dual Pistol lvl 3
Halfling outlaw solarian 3
CG Small humanoid (halfling)
Init +4; Perception +6
--------------------
Defense                        SP 21 HP 23 RP 3
--------------------
EAC 17; KAC 17
Fort +4; Ref +6; Will +4; +3 vs. fear effects
Defensive Abilities solar manifestation (solar armor)
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 30 ft.
Melee thunderstrike pulse gauntlet +3 (1d6+3 B & So; knockdown)
Ranged explorer handcoil +8 (1d6+1 E; arc 1d6) or
   azimuth laser pistol +8 (1d4+1 F; burn 1d4)
Offensive Abilities black hole, supernova
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 10 (+0); Dex 18 (+4); Con 10 (+0); Int 10 (+0); Wis 11 (+0); Cha 14 (+2)
Skills Acrobatics +11, Athletics +7, Culture +4, Diplomacy +6, Perception +6, Piloting +9 (2 ranks), Sleight Of Hand +8, Stealth +11; (reduce the DCs of Culture checks by 5 when recalling knowledge about the criminal underworld)
Feats Multi-weapon Fighting, Weapon Focus (small arms)
Languages Common, Gnome, Halfling, Ysoki
Other Abilities constructive interference, halfling luck, sidereal influence, sneaky, stellar mode
Other Gear clearweave I, azimuth laser pistol with 1 battery (20 charges), explorer handcoil with 1 battery (20 charges), thunderstrike pulse gauntlet with 1 battery (20 charges), credstick (625 credits)

So now we have Multi-Weapon Fighting so Full Attack is now looking like a good option with Weapon Specialization helping with the damage. In case they need some specific protection there Constructive Interference when needed.

 Also built to use Stealth to help get into good positions before start and Acrobatics to help get around the battlefield while avoiding those melee opponents but now we are packing a back up hand to hand weapon ourselves.

For our last step we will take this up to Level 5.

Created on Heroforge.com

Dual Pistol lvl 5
Halfling outlaw solarian 5
CG Small humanoid (halfling)
Init +4; Perception +9
--------------------
Defense                        SP 40 HP 37 RP 5
--------------------
EAC 18; KAC 18
Fort +6; Ref +6; Will +6; +3 vs. fear effects, +5 vs. poison or disease when attuned or fully attuned
Defensive Abilities solar manifestation (solar armor)
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 40 ft.
Melee static shock pad +6 (1d4+6 E; staggered [DC 12])
Ranged explorer handcoil +10 (1d6+2 E; arc 1d6) or
   tactical trilaser +10 (1d6+2 F; burn 1d4)
Offensive Abilities black hole, supernova
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 12 (+1); Dex 18 (+4); Con 12 (+1); Int 10 (+0); Wis 13 (+1); Cha 16 (+3)
Skills Acrobatics +12, Athletics +8, Culture +5, Diplomacy +8, Perception +9, Piloting +10 (3 ranks), Sleight Of Hand +9, Stealth +12; (reduce the DCs of Culture checks by 5 when recalling knowledge about the criminal underworld)
Feats Fleet, Multi-weapon Fighting, Weapon Focus (small arms)
Languages Common, Gnome, Halfling, Shirren, Ysoki
Other Abilities constructive interference, halfling luck, sidereal influence, sneaky, stellar equilibrium, stellar mode
Other Gear basic Lashunta tempweave (upgrade: static shock pad), explorer handcoil with 1 battery (20 charges), tactical trilaser with 1 battery (20 charges), credstick (1,550 credits)

So now we have our first Ability Increase to help round out the character's abilities while other features make them a bit more mobile and the Solarian Armor gets that cold/fire resistance going on now. My intended build focus I think is fully met here; A character for moving about the field to a good spot then laying down Full Attack fire with their small arms. They also can be a light party face while for Starship Combat can be a light captain, a replacement pilot or secondary gunner.

 Of course if you want a more reliable melee back up weapon you could replace Fleet with Quick Draw and take a melee weapon with Operative Quality on it to take advantage of the high Dex. If you do that then consider slapping Recall Fusion on the Small Arm you will drop to draw the melee weapon.

Please feel free to copy this build, take it further into the future or use it for inspiration for your own Starfinder characters then let me know about it!

I hope you found this fun and informative; I plan to do some more in the future along with some more fun theme type builds as well. If you like to support please check out my Patreon and Ko-fi accounts!

LEGO Creator Blue Express 31054 Review and Scale for MF0

The Box

Sadly this is now a retired product from the time of writing this but you can sometimes find it around or pick up the instructions for it online. I bought this more for a table/cover piece then to build outi f it much like an earlier train set.

Parts 1

Can you build some sort of creation right away?

I didn't even try to build anything with this set outside of the set but looking over the pieces I could have probably gotten a blocky but not fancy frame with maybe some kind of ranged weapons so I will weakly give it +5 points.

Parts 2

Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio? The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.

This set should have been $4.99

$4.99 / 71 = $0.07 a piece this is under the Golden Ratio for another +5 points!

Parts 3

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? 

Certainly usable parts but also a lot of plates but that still gets it +5 points.

The Set - Form 1

Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?

This is where this falls about earning a - 5 points as the useful seems smaller then the not useful to my eyes.

Total: So an A- rating for a set but this was bought for the table and no matter I think the train could look could; specially if combined with a track and some other sets but how does the scale of this look at 6-7 plates? Look below to find out.

So first we need some measurements.

About 12 plates tall 

About 9 studs long

About 4 wide

So what does this all mean; well sticking to your established Scales our train is about 10 feet, about 22 1/2 feet long and approx 10 feet wide.

Well finding Classic Engine dimensions proving a little annoying but I think a standard 50' Standard Box car gets us some info. The box cars have a height from 11-13 feet with a width of 10-11 feet so given this is LEGO I think we are on the money their. Length wise these box cars are 50-80 feet but I think steam engine were much smaller so just using my gut I think we are fine. I personally think it be great to see a long train of flatbeds with frames on them being transported on tracks for a battlefield. If you decide to do it let me know!

Nerf Review: Cobra RC-6

The Box

So Alpha Strike line is starting to show up in stores (Found mine at Target) and at $10 it was hard to not snag it just to get an idea of what this offers.

The Blaster

So the main product, the blaster which is a six shot rotation T Pull side arm style blaster. The performance out of the box is about Elite line style and T Pull is pretty easy. The handle style though is sort of annoying, if holding it tightly feels weird and possibly hurt after awhile. Simple solution is gloves or grip tape. The blaster has no screws, it all clipped together so probably easy to take apart but from videos I seen the plunger is dropped design and doesn't really allow for spring replacement.

Look at some of the Clamps on the Blaster

Next you get 12 (yes 12) darts in the package so you get two loads of darts for the blaster which it seems will be a common thing for the Alpha Strike line which is almost unheard of in Nerf Blasters!

The 'bottles' and the darts

Targets are not the biggest thing for Nerf War but they are fun at home. The four pieces come together in sets of two that fit together but are universal fits so any pieces come together to make it. They easily fall apart which is fun and the bottles have enough bottom base to stand as single pieces without being put together.

Bottles Assembled.

So for Nerf War Hobbyist and/or Modder I don't think it the best thing for us but I think it a fun box for the hobby and a great entry level product for the hobby at large. I suspect the entire line will be that which is great.

A Tale of PF2 Bards

As of writing this blog Pathfinder 2nd Edition is out...and I am still running a PF2 Playtest campaign of the Doomsday Dawn Playtest Adventure but it will be done soon.

I also got to play in one chapter of the playtest myself as a Bard, Lady Tart my Dwarven Beard (Drag) Queen who lived in the City of Strangers for a time after leaving his Sky Citadel home. The character and the mechanics were so fun that I had to get some art made of my passionate dwarven bard which you can see below. Though admittedly looking back got a few things wrong in the rules but we live, we learn and have fun playing.

Lady Tart aka Huk Kinar

With PF2 now out and the hopes I get to bring Huk back in a game one day I decided what he look like in the final product. So below I will post Playtest Lady Tart and under that PF2 Lady Tart so we can see what has changed!

Playtest Lady Tart

Page 1 - Click to Enlarge

Page 2 - Click to Enlarge

PF2 Lady Tart

Page 1 - Click to Enlarge

At first glance we see a massive change to HLO out print format; wait sorry. At a glance things are not too different. With the change between the different Proficiency 'levels' we see a boost to everything associated with that on PF2 Lady Tart. Spell Points are now Focus with different mechanics and with those I thought Versatile Signature was better to pick up then Triple Time despite me loving the name and what it does. Have a bit extra language now and spell selection is slightly different do to changes (Unseen Servant vs Summon Elemental for example). Slight change/tweak to Huk's heritage/ancestry and last some of the other lasting changes are to the gear. I copied the list for the most part but where it changes is in the runes/quality. I ended taking a +1 Striking Longsword instead of two +1 weapons as quality is gone (Sort of miss and messed up some of my Ebberon plans but it will be fine!) and Huk's armor isn't magical this time (I ran out of gold but I think they also bumped the armor rune up a level as well.)

That was interesting and I hope helped give some insight to things; I look forward to playing Lady Tart again in the future. Luck in your games; be it Pathfinder 2nd Edition or whatever you get play; just have fun!

LEGO Friends Friendship Flower 30404 Set Review for MF0

The Bag

Another Target Clearance Find, I really recommend you check out yours!

Frames!

Can you build some sort of creation right away?

I most certainly did! I got a classic squat quad walker and I tried to make a more human shaped from but was forced to make a hybrid as I couldn't figure out bipedal legs. I am really licking the arm style here. +5 points.

Parts 1

Is it below, at, or above the Golden Ratio?  (Ratio is $0.10 a piece)

Original Price $3.99 / 100 = $0.04 per part giving us +5 points.

Clearance Price #1.98 / = $0.02 per part gives us +5 and because it so low and the previous one was already below we will give a bonus +5 points for 10 total.

Parts 2

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?

Big yes but more on the scrambler or quad walker styles. +5 points.

Parts 3

Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?

Sort of have to say use given a built two frames, no don't I? +5 points.

 

The Set - Pretty Flower

Total: So the Set is already A+ before going on Clearance but after Clearance it exceeds exceptions becoming S(pecial) class!

LEGO Friends Emma's Bumper Cars 30409 Review for MF0

The Bag

As you can see I got this in clearance at my local Target so might want to check yours. I love the colors and I see something in this...

Front

Back

Can you build some sort of creation right away?

Well I built myself a bit of a dogcatfigher for Vitor's Dogfight MF0 Variant but still sort of a weak build so will go 0 points.

Parts 1

Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio? (Ratio is $0.10 per part)

Original Price $3.99 / 66 = $0.06 +5 Points
Clearance $1.98 / 66 =  $0.03 +5 with Clearance Bonus of +5 points.

Parts 2

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? 

Taking in account all the games I would say this set breaks even and will go with 0 points!

Parts 3

Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts? 

This I am going to say no to though so -5 points.

The Figures

The Set

Total: So regular Price we have a B and with my Clearance we get a B+ set. I think that fair plus the actual set I see some potential. Emma's Bumper could easily be made a starship and the cat could be the start of a tank for MF0.