Episode 301: Team Up

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Dave

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Zombie Cliche Lookout: Looks Dangerous; Let’s Split Up

This one isn’t so much a zombie trope, as it is a horror in general trope. Whenever you have a group of survivors in a horror story, you know that only a couple are going to make it out alive, if that. The problem, of course, is how to kill off all those people if they’re abusing the safety of the group, cooperating and whatnot? Simple: divide and conquer.

Just give them a couple different tasks to accomplish, and have them split off to complete them faster. Then you just have to un-apologetically murder them off in ones and twos until you’re down to a reasonable amount of survivors (one, maybe two).

About this Episode:

We’re drawing to a close on this story arc, and then we’re going to get back into a little bit more action-orientates stuff. With zombies. Of course, we’ve got a little bit of clear-up to do first.

I like to do these quieter arcs just about as much as the stuff with zombies (okay, maybe slightly less). It lets me address a lot of the little minutia that often has to get scarified to the gods of reasonable run-time in a zombie movie. It’s a fun thought exercise, if nothing else.

Discussion Question: Wanted LEGO® Accessories

I’ve been doing quite a few reviews of third-party accessories lately, which gets me thinking: what’s something you really wish some of these companies would make? Weapons? Armor? Everyday items?

While I love guns and armor as much as the next guy, I’m always a sucker for more everyday items. I divide those into two parts: those that can be pressed into service as a weapon, like a tire iron; and those that are great for background scenery, like bottles and glasses.

69 thoughts on “Episode 301: Team Up”

  1. So, Dave has been plotting to either off two newcomers all along or one long-standing cast member! 😀 Maybe it’s the other way around, or who knows, maybe a mix of both will eventuate! 😀

    I’m betting they show up at the grocery store only to find either that it doesn’t exist or has been dry looted right down to the till! 😀

    • I had an idea for a EOTWAWKI comic in which in one scene a character comes across a large cache of money and tells everyone in the group how rich he is, before the grop convinces him that the world is not going back to “normal” and that the money would make for poor kindling and poorer buttwipe.

      • That feels like a Twilight Zone episode. I like it.

    • “I’m betting they show up at the grocery store only to find either that it doesn’t exist”

      This made me laugh. Like the store is a fevered dream or something like that.

      • It’s the one filled with Twinkies (a Zombieland prophesy that came to pass).

      • … Or got burnt down, moved to a better location, hundreds of possibilities! 😀

  2. First, I want a passable LEGO GLOCK. No one is making one. I find it odd. Second, I wish BrickForge would make a yellow TASER. Many LEO’s carry yellow TASERs, so as not to confuse it with their sidearm when their stress gets up. Firearms are black. TASERs are yellow.

    Other than that, I’s like “bald” hair, something that went around the back of the fig and left the pate exposed. I especially want a skullet, for lack of a better word, long hair in the back, with a bald crown. That’s about it for minifigs, off the top of my head. Other than that, I would love more minifigs with believable “everyday” printing, clothes that look believable.

    Oh, and cars that seat two abreast and flat-panel computer monitors/televisions. The old printed slope computers look pretty dated.

    • Si-Dan makes a glock: http://minifigworld.com/g17-glock/

      I too would love a “bald” hair. Better still, make it modular. A bald dome to cover the stud, and a handful of different patterns of male baldness.

      • minifigworld does charge a premium, don’t they?

        • Yeah. I’ll bet it’s cheaper out there somewhere.

        • Yeah, that’s why I want one of the “big three” to make one. I’ve had nothing but good experiences buying directly from them; and they always toss in a random freebie. This week I got an extra pink mohawk from BrickForge and an extra Resistance helmet from BrickWarriors (didn’t order anything from G.I.Brick this week- they’re not running any promos).

        • It would be nicer for one of the big three to make them. Not only do a lot of the resellers overcharge, but the international shipping is kind of a pain too.

        • I feel better about supporting American cottage industries, too.

  3. Fire Axe. That is all. The regular hatchet piece just doesn’t look right. No zombie movie is complete without the hero smashing the glass box and retrieving a weapon, and the audience thinking, ”Was that there before?”

    • How about the official one that came with the lumberjack Minifig from Series 5?

      • I got a couple of them. Really great, and a big improvement over the standard hatchet. However, I doesn’t quite have the shape of a fire ax. I too would like something a little closer to the real deal.

        • Seems to me that it is more of a hatchet from that DayZ game.

    • I thought I saw one… looks like there’s a LEGO logo on it… I haven’t checked bricklink though.

      http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Lego-City-Minifig-FIREMAN-AXE-Brown-Red-Firefighter-Fire-Tool-w-Silver-Blade-/261052182831?pt=Building_Toys_US&hash=item3cc7ec312f

      • Yep, that’s the one from the collectible minifig that Greg mentions.

    • Fire ax, fire extinguisher, a sink, a smart phone, a and more laptops (since the only two were in the ADU command vehicle and the IT collectible minifig).

      • I think BrickForge made a tablet and smart phone, but they were limited release deals for a trade show or something like that.

      • Brick Command did smart phones. I haven’t had too much luck with their site when ordering. They’d sold out of everything to vendors and resellers. Luckily I got a refund for the order and the guy(s) sent me some promo pieces coming out. The little phones are great. But not so much everything else.

        • I had to look them up. Not a huge selection, but there are a couple interesting pieces in there. Nothing I’d want personally, but I could see fantasy or sci-fi builders using a few.

        • Yeah, as much as I love to see new companies, they’ve got nothing that interests me.

        • There seems to be a lot of crossover. It seems like half these companies all make the same few ninja weapons. I guess that’s cool if you’re into ninja stuff (more options are always nice), but I like it a lot more when the companies do things to set themselves apart.

          BrickArms, BrickForge, and BrickWarriors all have a little cross-over on their items, but they are also very, very easy to distinguish, and each company specializes in different stuff. It’s really nice.

        • Yeah, I really like their takes on snap-on vests/armor. BrickArms hasn’t really gotten into that like the other two; but you’re right, the differences are easy to distinguish, and I like and dislike aspects of all three companies’ offerings.

        • Yeah, I like those three the best. Most others I’ve seen are resellers of those products or they’re set over seas and I’m not interested in buying anything from them due to costs.

        • As far as the overseas guys go, Crazy Customs has some nice offerings, especially their modular medieval weapons. Si Dan has some nice stuff too, but I think a lot of it is too detailed to fit well with LEGO’s overall aesthetic.

  4. First of. I don’t buy third party stuff. But if I would, I would buy everyday items! It brings diversion and has more chance of stimulating imagination than a new gun… I don’t care for whole range of guns and armor… the few Lego has, are fine to me.

    • A purist, eh? Hat’s off to you there.

    • Some of the LUG guys here won’t do anything third party; but I did see a few aftermarket accessories at their big multi-table display at the last train show. I didn’t get around to asking which of them did it.

      • Oops, replied to the wrong comment.

  5. Brickforge has hit up the number of every day items and some mundane stuff.

    And there’s plenty of weapons around… at this point. I’m not too worried as between them and LEGO I have my hearts content til the wallet busts each time I can order to get some new pieces.

    And it looks like Murphy Grimes will get to see how the new group of people hold up in the field and if they will accept their new reality that the cavalry may not be coming.

    • Oh yeah. I love BrickForges shovel and canteen. Great items, those.

      And I had to laugh at “Murphy Grimes”.

      • They’re going to go play the Murphy Games, or is that the Hunger Grimes? I can’t tell.

        • May the odds be ever in their favor.

        • One of these days I’m going to have to read those books. I watched the first film, and enjoyed it well enough, but didn’t love it.

        • The first book is really good and like any novel done to movie, there are always scenes that get left out that don’t make it onto the silver screen.

          I’ve only read the second book at this time, Catching Fire and while I like it. I feel there are other ways to have moved the plot forward and to have handled it. Still good, but not as good as the first. The third, I will get to eventually, I’m finishing reading up the Wicked Years trilogy at current.

        • Watching the movie, I could feel stuff that was left out. There was a lot that was glossed over, or simply not explained at all, like all the genetically modified animals.

        • I got bored after the 3rd book of the hunger games, and in the book, those creeper dog things were actually the same person genes and the tributes who already died.

        • “the book, those creeper dog things were actually the same person genes and the tributes who already died.”

          That’s really bizarre. I think I’m kind of glad they left that out of the movie.

        • Seems like its always that way with book series anymore. I remember reading the first of the “Game of Thrones” series and LOVING it. By the time I finished suffering though the 5th book I was ready to gouge my own eyes out with a spoon for wasting my time with it.

        • I’m reading A Dance with Dragons now. GoT is a hell of a good story, but my god does it need some liberal editing. There’s so much padding and timewasting.

  6. If I know one thing for sure, its that something’s going to happen to one or the other while the other people are gone, besides, when me an my brother’s friends come over, and my moms about to leave, she always says. “Friends have to go, I don’t feel comfortable with a bunch of teenage boys in a house with your sisters.” I think that this is kind of the same kind of thing

    • I’m having a hard time seeing the connection.

      • Never trust a bunch of adult men with 1 woman in the house

        • They’re adults, not horny teenyboppers. They’re not going to do anything funny when there are hordes of zombies out there. That’s only in horor movies.

        • I don’t understand this comment in the least. Why shouldn’t you trust them? What do you expect them to do, exactly?

  7. I’d really enjoy if LEGO made more food items. Turkey legs, apples and few other miscellaneous eats aren’t enough to me.

    • Agreed. The cops should come with doughnuts and coffee.

    • Agreed!

    • Perhaps food with small little crafty ways of letting the figures hold it with out looking odd. Vegetables would be easy, fruits might cause a problem when it came to watermelons, and made food could always have a bottom to it for the hands with out looking too out of place.

      • The watermelon could have a part of a vine on it.

        • Loaves of bread and pumpkins. Possibly ones with a hole so it could be used as a head.
          Is there a lego farm? There could be cobs of corn set up to be assembled into stalks. Farm implements would add peaceful and zambie killan tools.
          A roman set, and whatever accessories needed to make the Doctor, Amy, and Rory.

  8. great cant wait to see if Inez and murphy have a falling out in some future episodes

  9. LEGO needs to make everyday items like TVs,refridgerators,sofas,ect.

  10. Just throw down 130 on Brickarms, Brickforge, Tiny tactical, Amazing Armory and Citizen Brick but still missing a lot of what I want. An Axe handle, Cinder Blocks, better or more 1 piece trees, Side by side vehicles (what is this car tandem?). I love the skullet, great idea. How about different hands, small legs that hinge, Bagged groceries, snow shovel, … I want it all. Also more Blac…Reddish Brown heads.

    • threw

    • And a good chainsaw

  11. Dave will we ever get back to poor Sam?

  12. They should make a smaller minifig torso piece.

  13. A good bow (longbow), and some more food would make me eternally content.

    • Check out the LOTR/Hobbit sets… some of them have a longbow with the elven figs… pretty good 🙂

      • Or, if you aren’t very picky, look at the Avengers sets with Hawkeye in them.

  14. And what parts would I like to see Lego do…

    Dwarf/Kids legs that actually move! It is a real pain trying to get my collection of Thorin’s Company looking good because they all have the unmovable dwarf/kid legs…

    I read somewhere a third party did it… so why cant Lego? 🙂

    • Found it:
      http://www.brickfortress.com/

      • I’ve requested review samples from them. No luck so far.

  15. Yay Super Bowl!!

  16. I hope they’re not going to cause trouble for Murphy.