Superhero Media: The Mask of Zorro

How come no one talks about this film anymore? And where are all the Zorro films? There should be more Zorro films. I remember The Mask of Zorro being a bit hit when it came out, but I haven't heard anyone talk about it recently, which is a shame, because it's really good. It's the late 1800s and the colony of California is ruled by a coalition of Dons who have just seized power in a coup; the peace is kept by the hero of the people, Zorro. In the opening battle, Zorro frees a group of innocent men about to be executed, is almost captured but for the intervention of a couple of children and then rides off into the sunset. Returning to his villa, Zorro finds out that he has been betrayed, his wife dies, he is imprisoned and his daughter taken by his rival. Years pass and the boys are now outlaws, one brother is killed and the other starts out on a path of revenge, only to run into a recently-escaped Zorro, and a new legend begins! 

The Mask of Zorro is more "fun" than cerebral or literate, Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Antonio Banderas have a hell of a good time bouncing off each other, Hopkins even carrying off the swashbuckling pretty well despite his age. The strength of the film is in that it never tries to be more than it can realistically be, it's not high art, but doesn't aim for it, which is a nice change of pace after a lot of post-The Dark Knight entries in the superhero film canon. The plot is light and serves just enough to link the film from set-piece to set-piece, which is all it needs really, with plenty of fun one-liners and quippy dialogue to keep up the pace. I'm not personally a huge fan of Banderas as an actor, but this is the kind of role he was born to play, a charming goofball with fun lines to drawl his natural accent a bit thicker on and getting shown up by the legendary talent of Hopkins. Zeta-Jones also deserves some major kudos, her comic timing is brilliant, she should get more roles where she gets to make jokes.

This was never destined to be a great superhero film saga, but who cares? It works well as a stand-alone film or introduction to the broader Zorro mythos or even a history lesson on the origins of Batman. Zorro is a classic hero for a reason, he embodies the 'rich man turned vigilante for the people' archetype almost as well as Sir Percy, but is non-white and free of the complications that drag Batman's privilege and prejudices into the light. Zorro is the kind of hero that should be coming back in this Superhero Cinema Landscape built by Marvel Studios, with a Hispanic actor in the leading role and a new face of colonialism to fight; the resurrectionist. I'm sure that there's plenty that could be done with an enemy who needs to get Zorro out of the way to "make California great again". A solid film well worth another look. 

Five Characters I don't want to see in Smash Bros

I have my copy of Smash Bros Ultimate, do you? Looking at the demographics for who reads my blog, probably not, but I'm still excited. Something different this time, this one is about characters I don't want to see pop up in Smash Bros, but it's also more than just a list. This is more about where the Smash franchise has been moving and some aspects that I haven't liked even as far back as Super Smash Bros Melee. Again, this is all personal opinion, what I like and don't like, so shouldn't be taken as a manifesto or list of demands. Seriously, the bile that gets spewed over people's lists of preferred Smash Bros characters on YouTube makes me glad I have so few followers. 

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Waluigi

Mostly I just think that there are already enough characters from the Mario "family" in Smash Bros, but I really don't want to ever see Waluigi be anything more than an assist trophy. There's just something deeply unsettling about him that I can't put my finger on, perhaps some kind of uncanny valley effect or the fact that he's just fucking weird. Also not keen to see Birdo anytime soon, could be convinced for Mouser or Wart and actually happy to see Daisy be her own character in Ultimate. But seriously, enough with the Mario stuff, why not more Donkey Kong, Kirby or Metroid characters?

Shadow the Hedgehog

As I've mentioned before, I would actually like to see more Sonic characters in Smash Bros; Tails, Knuckles, Amy Rose and Eggman would all be fun to see, perhaps even Metal Sonic beyond World of Light. That said, Shadow the Hedgehog feels like he'd be the start of a slippery slope, as well as just being something of a lame character to begin with. Also, where does it stop? Does Smash Bros really need Shadow, Silver, Cat, Bat, Rat, Matt, Gat and whoever else is kicking around the depraved corners of the Sonic fandom? You know I'm right, just Google Sonic the Hedgehog with Safe Search off.

Lightning

I can see why Cloud was included in Smash Bros, he's iconic for his era, has a huge following outside of the Final Fantasy die-hards and FF7 tricked a generation of gamers into thinking everything since then in the series has been worthwhile. That said, does Smash Bros need to become a repository for Final Fantasy characters when there are already more than a few team-up games featuring said characters? Dear god, do I not want to have to play Event Matches as Squall or Titus. Tifa may be a fun counter to Little Mac, though.

Goku

I know a great many people think they want Goku in Smash Bros, but I'm here to tell you that you're wrong. First off, does Goku really need to be in more fighting games? Seems like every year there's another big budget Dragonball Z or crossover game featuring the Sayian, not to mention he's now an Olympic ambassador as well. Second, even if Goku were to be included in a Smash Bros game, no one could ever be happy with how he would work. Think about it, if Goku wasn't top tier in competitive Smash, there would be an outcry online, if was unbalanced and needed to be nerfed, there would be outcry from fanboys, if he was just mediocre, there would be endless blogs and videos about how he should be better because in the anime he's just that good. I don't want to have to live through that, sorry. Keep Goku out of Smash Bros.

  

Anyone else from Fire Emblem 

Not that I have anything against Fire Emblem, or fail to recognise how popular the franchise is in Japan, but don't we have enough of them already? Robin is the only one of the set that really stands out as he/she dosen't have a sword, though I do have a soft spot for Roy from my Melee days. Much like the Mario characters above, I just feel that there are other characters from other franchises that could do with a go before even more Fire Emblem characters join in. Show me Dixie Kong, Funky Kong and Lanky Kong, or Bandanna Dee, Susie and Daroach, or go really nuts and give us The Elite Beat Agents, Cooking Mama and Bob-Louie before another anime warrior with a sword. 

That's it, I'm done, at least until I finish World of Light. 

Superhero Media: Avengers - Earth's Mightiest Heroes

In the distant past, before the Marvel Cinematic Universe was the ubiquitous behemoth of popular culture that is today, Marvel Studios put out this cartoon, and I loved it. Premiering a couple of years after Iron Man, Avengers - Earth's Mightiest Heroes [AEMH] feels like a test run for the MCU with a stronger link to the comics. After a breakout at several supervillain prisons, Iron Man, The Wasp, Thor, Hulk and Giant Man find themselves working together and we have the famous "day unlike any other" that births The Avengers! The characters are all painted in broad strokes, Iron Man is childish, Thor arrogant, Cap dutiful, Hulk angry, Wasp ditzy and so on. AMEH somehow manages to do some of the best takes on Carol Danvers and Clint Barton, much as I love Jeremy Renner's interpretation, he really needs to loose some trick arrows and insult Cap a few times. Hell I wouldn't say no to a "ok, this looks bad", would you? 

The series also manages to cover several major events in comics history pretty well, including "Secret Invasion", the Kree/Skrull War and the "Winter Soldier" arc of Captain America. Classic villains like The Masters of Evil and the Serpent Society are recurring antagonists, which is actually really fun to see, especially when they have to team up with some of the heroes in the second season episode "Assault on 42", probably one of the best in the series. Of all the guest characters, it's actually Spider-man and Luke Cage that stand out the most, even more so that Rocket and Groot, with Spidey falling nicely into his sempai/kohai relationship with Cap and Luke just having some of the best lines and constantly billing Tony Stark for services rendered. 

AEMH is not as good as it once was, now that we have so many great MCU entries, but it is worth watching if you feel like something a bit closer to the comics without getting bogged down in continuity. The characters work, most of the writing is solid and a handful of episodes are really good. It would also work as a primer on the broad strokes of the Marvel 616 Universe if you or someone you know is keen on wanting to learn more, especially with some of the more obtuse points like Yellowjacket, the Supreme Intelligence and Red Hulk. It never reaches the same heights as Justice League Unlimited, but AEMH is still the best animated version of this team to get a full series of its own. Avengers Assemble! 

Kill Team Aesir - Part II

Finally got another Kill Team game in with my Deathwatch at the last club meeting. Deathwatch versus Death Guard, playing the "Terror Tactics" Mission. It was a pretty close game and a lot of fun, we're definitely going to have to look at a campaign in the near future. I'm still a bit behind on my painting though, because not all of the parts I need have arrived and I'm making myself paint my Imperial Guard Kill Team first. 

Called to investigate possible Xenos activity in an Imperial Hive City, Kill Team Aesir (Volstagg, Fandhal, Hogun, Heimdall and Thor) move through a ruined area. 

 Death Guard forces gather. 

 Volstagg lines up a shot with his powerful Frag Cannon. 

 First blood to the Deathwatch as an enemy of the Imperium is destroyed! 

 The Mighty Thor charges into single combat against a champion wielding a Great Plague Cleaver. 

A flail-wielding Death Guard decides to challenge the Warriors Three. 

Whist Fandhal duels the Chaos Marine, Volstagg blasts away the Death Guard Champion, proving nothing can withstand the might of Asgardian weaponry. 

"Thou were a fool to challenge the Mighty Thor!" Mjolnir slays another foe in one fell swing. 

Things start to look bad for our heroes as Plague Spewer and Flail cause minor injuries to all of the Warriors Three. 

Thor makes a valiant attempt to take out the Plague-Spewer, but a misinterpretation of the rules leaves the Scion of Asgard in the dirt. 

 Things go from bad to worse as the Flailing Death Guard takes down first Fandhal then Hogun.

Volstagg mops up the last minions and the game falls the way of the Deathwatch, with the Death Guard resolve breaking. 

Despite the reputation on the internet that both Deathwatch and Death Guard have for being "broken" factions in Kill Team, the game was quite balanced and could have swung either way at a couple of points. It helped that neither my opponent, Adam, nor I are particularly interested in playing "unbeatable" armies. I'd really like to get my table and Deathwatch done soon, but time is still tricky for me for a couple more weeks. Once my parts arrive, I'll aim to have the team done by the close of the year. 

Superhero Media: I, Frankenstein

Every review and opinion I've managed to find on this film does not have nice things to say, which is actually a bit of a shame as there are some things to recommend it. Sure, I, Frankenstein is not a good film, but it's a fun popcorn, supernatural, action film in the vein of Blade or Underworld and that was enough for me. Also the writers of the film seem to have had a genuine respect for Mary Shelly's seminal novel, with the film taking off from the last chapter of the novel, the monster having the name "Adam" and even a mention of the eels used to generate the electricity (the lightning is a Hollywood addition). The problems really are the poor dialogue and lackluster CGI, more so than the concept. Even talented actors like Aaron Eckhart and Bill Nighy struggle to make the "grandiose" lines sound like anything other than a teenager's fan fiction. 

The story follows the titular monster as he discovers the existence of demons and their divine opponents, the gargoyles (earthbound guardian angles), the demons want the monster because, without a soul of his own, he's the prefect vessel for a higher-level demon. The Demons plan to capture the monster, figure out how he works and make enough to win their war with the gargoyles; not a brilliant plot, but about on par with similar horror/action/superhero films. There's a copy of Victor Frankenstein's diary rolling around for the sides to fight over and a bunch of disposable characters to provide the monster with some pathos. Probably the most fun I had watching was spotting all of the places they'd filmed in Melbourne, my home town; there is, of course, the Melbourne Uni car park that was featured in Mad Max, several famous laneways and the National Gallery of Victoria masquerading as "Central Station". I actually kind of like the "Central Station" as our main train station (Flinder's Street) is rather iconic and would have planted the film too much in Australia. 

I, Frankenstein features a cameo from Australia's greatest living actor, Bruce Spence, but blink and you'll miss him. In researching this article, I discovered that I, Frankenstein is based on an indy graphic novel which I have never read but would be interested to see if it's better, or at least better written. As DC comics have shown for decades, the idea of the Monster walking around today and being heroic has some potential, it's almost a shame that Universal Studio's "Dark Universe" won't come to pass, I would have liked to see something like that tackle the Modern Prometheus. Not an essential watch, but fun enough whilst painting or whatever.

MI-13: Campaign Primer

Welcome to my "MI-13" SuperSystem 4 RPG Campaign! Before we get started, I'd like to go over a few things in terms of background and theme, just so we're all on the same page. Roleplaying is a collaborative story telling experience, and as a GM, I tend to focus on the narrative and characters of the game rather than hard and fast numbers. Characters grow and change in response to what they experience, not numbers or dots on a character sheet. Good roleplaying will be rewarded and story always triumphs rules.


Now on to theme and setting: 

This is England. The thing about England in comics is that it's always a bit more... English. Everyone eats tea and crumpets, there is no BBC 3 and Doctor Who is still worth watching. Keep in mind when creating your character that they come from and/or live in the UK and how this may affect their personality and outlook. You don't, however, have to play a character like Beefeater, Captain Midlands or Robin Hood to fit the theme. 

This is also the Marvel Cinematic Universe [MCU], not Logan or Batman V Superman or 90s Image comics; keep it light. Yes, none of the Avengers seem adverse to killing in the MCU, but none really slaughter enemies wholesale for the fun of it or get their kicks from hurting people. Yes, characters have trauma and emotional baggage, but no one locks themselves in a room and cranks The Cure. Aim for the game to be more like Ant-Man rather than Spawn. 

As SuperSystem has no inherent morality mechanic, we'll be using a variation on the "Fate Dice" system in the rulebook. Fate Dice form a party pool that can be used to boost rolls, gain an advantage in battle, temporarily buff a power or get a re-roll. You do heroic things, work well as a team or roleplay well, the team gets more dice to use. You act like jerks, fight all the time or keep quoting Abridged series instead of thinking up something to say, I take the dice away. If you don't get the reference, watch more films. 

It would be a big lie to say that all powers are equal in SuperSystem. Yes, Burrowing is cool, but you're always going to get more use out of Super Toughness. You need to be aware that some characters are simply going to have more utility than others and that's ok. Trust me, I've run a perfectly balanced Superhero RPG, it sucked and everyone got bored quickly. If a power isn't really working for you in combat, think about how it works and what you can do with it; there may be something your character can do to help other than punch things.  

Conflict is good, it drives story, but do try and have the team get along for the most part, ok? Remember how much fun the party scene was in Avengers: Age of Ultron? Or how cool the teamwork moments of the big fights are? I will reward cool little team-up moments and characters developing genuine rapport, they make for a good game.  

Superhero Media: Miraculous - Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir (Season 1)

I first came across this programme a little while ago when it was on ABC Kids here in Australia, I watched a few episodes but really couldn't get into it. When I saw it pop up on Netflix, I decided to give the programme another go. Whilst there's not a lot to Miraculous, what is there is really well done and quite unique, at the least being a particular combination of ideas and tropes that I haven't seen before. Seriously, if you're into superheroes as much as I am, check out Miraculous, just stick with it, because the "origins" episode is about twelve in and it can be confusing before that point. Marinette is a teenage girl chosen by Tikki, an ancient Kwami, to be the latest incarnation of "Ladybug", a champion of justice with a history stretching back to ancient times (at least Egypt?). She teams up with Chat Noir, a similar hero with the power of destruction, to foil the machinations of Hawkmoth, a evildoer powered by his own Kwami. 

What follows is a French twist on the Japanese "Magical Girl" franchise, complete with monster of the week and repeated transformation sequences. Miraculous can get pretty repetitive, but that's a standard issue with these sort of children's programmes, so pretty forgivable. The interesting part comes more in the construction of Miraculous than in the execution. A collaboration between French animation house Zagtoon and the Japanese legend Toei, that theme of cultural mixing continues, with Marinette being the offspring of a French and a Japanese parent (see what they did there?). The whole cast is rather diverse, even if all the teenage girls manage a perfect 36"24"26", but hey, I'll take diversity in superheroes where I can get it. A major recurring theme of the series is teenage romance, with Chat Noir being besotted with Ladybug whilst Marinette falls for Adrien, Noir's alter-ego. 

I actually was pretty much done with Miraculous right up until the last couple of episodes. Sure, I'll forgive a programme being formulaic or repetitive, especially in this genre, but the charm that was there wasn't quite enough to have me coming back for more. However, in the last episode, more truths about the Kwami and the Miraculous come to light, ending on a cliffhanger with Marinette about to discover more about her powers. There's quite a fan following for Miraculous and if you're trying to keep your daughter engaged with Superheroes, I can highly recommend checking it out, though there's probably not enough there to engage the adult audience. I'll be checking out the second season myself when it lands on Netflix, but don't expect to see a Ladybug and Chat Noir on an Ultimate Alliance table anytime soon. 

Excelsior!

So Stan "the Man" Lee died yesterday and it hit me a lot harder than I thought it would. I'm not typically the kind to get really upset of a celebrity death, though Prince and MCA both threw me at the time, and Lee was 95, so on an intellectual level, I knew he wouldn't be around much longer; but I still found myself close to tears for much of yesterday. It's been a bad year for me, emotionally, I lost my job  around April and didn't bother to watch out for myself afterwards. By September, I was self-harming and even had a close call with suicide. Things are better now, I start a new Student Counselling role in a couple of weeks and have been volunteering to give myself something meaningful to do. Then Stan Lee died and I kind of felt empty for the better part of a day. 

As a mental health worker, I know that everything comes back to grief and/or trauma sooner or later, but knowing that I'm experiencing grief and doing something about it are two different things. Despite my background in English Literature, I can think of few authors who have had as much influence over my life as Stan Lee and his many collaborators. Spider-Man comics where the first things I ever read, and I grew up in the boom period of Marvel Cartoons in the early 1990s. Throughout my entire life, I have read comics, and mostly Marvel Comics, and they have shaped the way I think and act. When I was a child, I wanted to be a superhero, as an adult, I advocate for social justice and try to save lives through my mental health work in suicide prevention. 

If it hadn't been for Stan Lee and the Marvel crew of the 1960s, I don't think superheroes and comics would be around in the form they are now, and certainly wouldn't have been as prevalent in my childhood. Despite taking credit for almost everything Marvel touched in the Silver and Bronze age, Stan was one of a team, but I think it gets forgotten that his being the face of the company in those halcyon days was a decision made by the management so that only Stan had to do the PR stuff that Kirby et al didn't want to do. Over time, Stan became not only the face of Marvel Comics, but the face of the genre. Batman and Superman may be the most recognisable superheroes of all time, but Stan Lee is the best known comic creator by a wide margin. 

Lee spent essentially his entire life in the comics industry, his creative efforts touching from the 1950s through to today. That's a hell of a legacy. Think of how many kids, too young to read, that run around in Spider-Man costumes, or how big the Marvel films are at the moment. It's not hyperbole to assert that without the Lee and Kirby-led boom of the Silver Age, none of this would exist. No MCU, no modern comics, no superhero film industry thanks to the success of Spider-Man, Blade and X-Men. No Lead Capes and my endless superhero miniatures project. 

Thank you, Stan Lee, I will miss you but cherish your continued presence in my life. 

 

Superhero Media: Green Lantern (2011)

If you have never actually sat through this film, I kind of have to recommend that you do, if only to see how a film can manage to fail to be good at any stage, on any level. What is so fascinating about this film is that nothing works, at all. Got Geoffery Rush, Clancy Brown, Ryan Reynolds and Taika Waititi in your film? Doesn't matter, because the costumes, script, cinematography and direction are all pulling in different directions and nothing comes together at any stage. And it's not that the bare bones of the story don't work as an outline; Hal Jordan gets the Green Lantern ring, travels to Oa where he is trained to be a member of the corps, returns to Earth and defeats the villain. That's pretty much all a Green Lantern film really needs to be. That's the real shame here; the utter failure of anyone attached to the project to deliver on the premise. 

I suppose I should talk about the CGI? Because that always seems to come up when talking about Green Lantern. Yes, the costume looks stupid, it's Ryan Reynolds' head floating in a greenscreen, of course it looks stupid. Yes, it would have looked better with practical effects, but no one does practical effects anymore (except maybe Duncan Jones), because of the time and expense. Probably the best compromise would have been CGI powers and "real" costumes, but I can see the reason behind the decision, even if it turned out to be a bad one. Hell, with a decent script, even the CGI costume may have been forgivable. The real problem is the narrative and, especially, the villain; I know Hector Hammond has changed since the Silver Age, but I still think of him menacing GL with his "Future Brain". 

Hammond, Paralax, Sinestro, that's way too many villains for the first film in the series, the audience has no idea who these people are or why they should care. So Paralax is concentrated fear? Does Hal defeat it by being brave? Not really, just whip at it with some CGI boxing gloves and everything will be ok. Uninspired is the word that I associate with Green Lantern, it feels like no one wanted to work on the film and just happened to be under contract. This feels especially disappointing to watch after Iron Man having been out just a few years previous, like an anachronistic '90s superhero film that found its way into the wrong decade. I'm glad this never went anywhere, because Green Lantern actually deserves better than this. 

Melee of Champions - Part I

This project was going to be a bit more "background" than most, but given the huge amount of interest I got on the Super Miniatures Gaming Facebook Group, I thought I'd get going on it now. I've had the idea for a while to run supers games at various community festivals and events which my club attends, but I wanted to make the games more engaging and accessible for people unfamiliar with miniature wargames. Though I'm not much of a video gamer, I knew about the Disney Infinity figurines and Nintendo Amiibos and thought there was some potential there, but SuperSystem just seemed a little too complex for what I wanted to do.

Thankfully, Scott P came up with Super Mission Force [SMF], a lighter, and faster-playing version of SuperSystem which would be easier for new players and young people to pick up. Thanks to my chronic under-employment, it took me a lot longer than I would have liked to get this project going, but I finally managed to get my hands on SMF and play a few games to get a feel for it. As I've said before, I'm not so much of a fan of it as a game for me, but the rules work fine and only require a couple of tweaks for the kind of game I want to get people playing at a convention or festival. Specifically, the changes I make are that all attacks do Knockback and there is no Dice Pool Cap for bonus dice, there are a couple of reasons for these changes. With the Knockback, I'm running the game on a smaller area and use "ring-outs" as a second win condition, so characters flying all around the place makes this happen a bit more often. For the Dice Pool Cap, I found with my Ultimate Alliance games, which are aimed at a convention crowd, more dice meant more fun, especially when a player got lucky and could make a huge attack.

So lets talk theme for a minute. With my SuperSystem games, I built my own "Platinum Age" setting, complete with history, teams, aliens and even alternate universes; this gives me a chance to tell my own stories and flex my creativity. For Ultimate Alliance, I wanted a game where I could combine all of the various characters I had from different publishers and continuities and do all the crazy stuff that copyright laws and corporate interests would never allow. When I came to SMF and had bought some Disney Infinity and Amiibos (ok, so I did already have some, I do own a Wii-U, 2DS and Switch), I decided to approach it from another angle. Given I was was aiming at a younger audience, my mind drifted to a favourite of mine, Super Smash Bros. 

It's a tad obvious when you think about it, take a crossover game franchise filled with popular characters and reproduce it in miniature form. Of course, being me, there's more to it than that, there's a healthy dose of Contest of Champions in there as well, which is how I'm thinking of framing it for players; "Choose your champions and battle to decide who is the greater power", kind of deal. Incidentally, if you haven't read the new Contest of Champions, pick up the two trades, they're really good. 

So now I had the rules and some figures, what next? Thankfully, the online community for SMF is pretty awesome. Through the Lead Adventure Forum, I found this site: http://smfcards.000webhostapp.com/ which has a couple of hundred stat cards for heroes already done up, plenty of Marvel and DC, but also some indy stuff and even a few anime characters. That lot only covered five of the Marvel characters I had, so being time-poor in the extreme at the moment (in the middle of an 18-day work week as I write this), I went the easy route and decided to just adapt characters that were already in the huge amount of work done above. I'm not much when it comes to image manipulation, thankfully Marc P from the Super Miniature Gaming group came to my aid and put together some great images at no expense. You can find Marc's work at the end of this article, for the originals, please support the previous link.

Some of my Disney Infinity; Thor, Nick Fury, Black Widow, Iron Man and Hulk. 

At the Whitehorse Community Festival here in Melbourne, Australia, I had my "Melee of Champions" stuff out and ready to go, intending to do my best to sell the hobby of miniatures gaming to the general public, despite the popular image of neckbeards and body odor. Whilst I had a lot of interest and even ran a few turns, what I talked about most that day was my profession, that of being a counsellor, primarily working with youth, especially those with diagnosed Autism Spectrum Disorder. This kind of work is just something I fell into, finding that I had a talent for it as well as the interest. Some of my best work has involved the use of board and card games to help develop a rapport with clients that may not have a great deal of interest in verbal communication. To help with this, my Counselling kit includes such exotic paraphernalia as copies of Infernal Contraption, Kill Doctor Lucky, Man Bites Dog, One Night Ultimate Werewolf and Rhino Hero.

The Incredibles, courtesy of Disney Infinity 

After this past weekend though, I'm thinking that maybe there's room for wargames in my Counsellors' toolbox. I doubt I'll ever have the audacity to hand out "Getting Started in Age of Sigmar" books at any school were I'm working, but Melee of Champions, as well as games like Tribal, Wars of Insurgency and whatever my kaiju project turns out to be all have potential for being educational and theraputic as well as fun. Games are a great way to get students involved with mathematics, estimation, strategic thinking and, for ASD and other youth that have trouble reading non-verbal ques, learning to gauge the truth of what a person is saying. Not so much teaching people to lie that may otherwise have trouble, but to better pick up on when someone else is being untruthful. Obviously, games like One Night Ultimate Werewolf are better for this than miniatures gaming, but there is an element of bluffing to wargames that I feel many overlook, especially once hidden objectives and unexpected combos come into play. 

Disney Infinity Gamora and Rocket Racoon represent the Guardians of the Galaxy I have so far. 

One of the better aspects of this project is the cost, or lack thereof. I tend to game a bit on the cheap anyway, being chronically underemployed, but I also don't mind spending money on my hobby to get the pieces I want. For example, I have a Flesh Eater Courts army for Age of Sigmar, which I really enjoy playing, but damn if it wasn't one of the more expensive armies I've put together. For the most part, the Disney Infinity figures can be found second-hand for a few dollars each, and I tend to buy the Amiibos on sale for around $9AUD each. As mentioned above, I use the Amiibos for my Nintendo hardware, so the price also includes the added play I get there. SMF is a pretty affordable book and the Stat Cards are printed on photos, around 10c each at the local office supply chain store. 

Some of the Disney Infinity really exaggerate the proportions, I'm not keen on Syndrome, but it looks good on Ahsoka Tano and Rey. 

Part of the appeal of a cheap project also helps with my public displays, where the aim isn't so much to convince people to join my particular wargames club, as it is to raise awareness of the miniature wargames hobby and how people can start playing quickly and easily. Something that's as affordable as SMF and some toys that many parents may already have too many of laying around looks a lot less daunting than Warmachine or Age of Sigmar. I've found that most children over around 10 (depending on developmental skills) can pick up SMF after only a few turns, especially with the nice cards that cover most of the Powers and skills. I struggle sometimes to not use phrases like "D6" and "Alternating Activation", after so many years of playing with wargamers, but practice makes perfect and all that. 

Captain Jack Sparrow and Barbossa from Disney Infinity and Captain Falcon Amiibo make for a trio of Captains. 

So this is the part where I ask for help. Not so much for anything in particular, but to start working on something we can all use. As mentioned above, the stats I have for The Incredibles, Syndrome, Rocket Racoon, Ahsoka Tano, Captain Falcon, Falco, King Dedede, Meta Knight and Bowser are simply rebranded versions of existing cards taken from the link. Not to mention needing stats for new acquisitions Rey, Barbossa and Captain Jack. Whilst Marc has expressed an interest in making up more cards, I've never actually done up the stats of a SMF character, and do need to learn, but of people out there, in the community are keen to have a go, please do. Perhaps we can build a database or wiki somewhere? I'm not great with computers, so would be willing to hand that idea off to someone. If you want to help out, comment on this post, in the the original link to this I posted in the Super Miniatures Gaming group. 

Falco, King Dedede, Meta Knight and Bowser, the Amiibos are actually really nice for the money, well sculpted and the painting is crisp. 

Thanks for sticking around til the end of this one, I have a couple more ideas for figures for this one, if Disney, Star Wars, Pixar, Marvel and Nintendo aren't enough for you. First of all DC did a line of "DC Animated Universe" style non-posable heroes called "FIGZ", which look perfect, but I can't find anywhere anymore: 

Seriosuly, if you find any of these, please let me know, I'd like to grab a few. The alternative is the Schleich versions, but at $20+AUD a pop, they're out of my range. Similar designs can be found with various Anime franchises, but I'm, again, waiting to find some in my price range, mostly Dragonball. If video games are more your thing though, you may want to take a look at the Playstation Totaku collectables, but wait until they go half-price at your local EB or Gamestop. 

Personally, I'm waiting for a Ratchet and Clank, but the Tekken stuff is tempting. Hope all of this is helpful or at least interesting for those who got this far. I'm starting a proper counselling job again next year, with a look to do more "games as teaching", so expect something more along these lines in the future.