XimenaPaulina

Things I liked about the "Tragic Rogues": - It is not a rehash like TFA. - It's a breath of fresh air to see a movie where: a. a bunch of 'normal' people accomplished their mission without the always convenient aid from the Jedi. b. all the protagonists die - the proverbial "ultimate sacrifice by an ensemble crew for the bigger cause", something you never see in big movie franchises. - It finally answers one of the biggest mysteries in Star Wars lore - why the F there was a stupid fatal flaw in the design of the Death Star - the movie for me convincingly adresses that. - The ending seamlessly tying to A New Hope (Tantive IV, Leia!) My 3rd best SW film behind ESB and RotJ. One nitpick though: No iconic Star Wars intro music with rolling text.

It's an overall mess, nothing better to describe BvS. After all the massive hype this movie has gotten, it heavily fell flat on its face and the negative reviews it has been getting are more than justified. Incoherent plot/storylines, cringe-worthy amateurish slow mo scenes (ugh), out-of-place musical score, oversaturates CGI making the overall visuals look unnatural and fake ala-300, and don't even get me started with the annoying Lex. I feel the movie tries too hard to copy the dark tone of the successful Nolan Batman movies and tries even harder to separate itself from the lighter tone of the MCU, which deflates the whole movie experience of one key element - FUN. If ever you're going to watch try to come to the cinema with very very low expectations.

THIS. Too much of a copy of Ep.IV. Felt underwhelmed overall except for Rey's parts in the movie. An average movie at best, better than the prequels but not as good as the originals. Maybe due to overhype and too high expectations. Looking forward for an Empire-sque Ep.VIII to redeem this new trilogy.

This is probably the best part of the movie for me, she was quite a badass in the end and I was really rooting for her at that time. Going forward I just hope the story will go a different route. No redemption for Kylo Ren ala Vader. No sacrificial death by Luke like Obi Wan. And please no Ewok-like creatures. And pls. do something better about the Phasma character other than getting pwned by a janitor stormie.

TFA was quite disappointing for me. Recycled storylines, forced pacing, tried too hard to be nostalgic, unconvincing acting, annoying lensflares, boring lightsaber duels. Overall meh. I guess my misatake was I expected too much and got overhyped for this movie.

After reading through everything that has been said by the two primary lynch candidates, Esther and Caleb, I'm not entirely convinced of their suspected scuminess. Esther seems to have the best intentions for the Village despite the highly-aggressive nature of her pursuit of weeding out the members of the Red Coyote Gang. The accusations against Caleb aren't strong enough either for me to vote for him, and his defense is quite satisfactory for me. To be honest, I'm not really comfortable with voting any of the lynch candidates, so I decided not to vote and accept the consequences of my action.

I tried to backread remember everything Esther said so far, and I really find it odd for a townie to have such a strong accusatory vendetta this early in the game - with not one, not two, but even up to four primary suspects on her scum list! Heck I myself am having a hard time deciding on one person who I find the most suspicious, and yet Esther seems to have quite a solid gameplan this early. While this type of behavior isn't exactly wrong, it just rubs me the wrong way and I see her wall-of-text accusations as a well-planned pre-fabricated ploy usually done by scum to make themselves look active and helpful. On these grounds alone, it usually is enough for me to vote for someone, but thinking on the flipside, if Esther is scum, would her scum teammates really allow her to flail this wildly on the first day? This line-of-thought is what makes me uncomfortable voting for Esther. I would like to see her answer the accusations against her, but it seems she ignored the first wave of questions on her and is still hell bent on accusing others.

Well what da ya know, people are busy early scum-hunting eh? Sorry I woke up quite late, I actually read heard Sheridan's bold claim at the start of the day but I was too sleepy back then to comment and I really had to go to bed. I think it was a bit odd for someone to make that sort of claim on the very first instance he/she gets to speak. I'm 50/50 on this claim - and I always want to give people the benefit of the doubt even if you all ain't trustworthy to me. Sheridan may be a bit pushy getting the reactions of the people to her claim, but I could see the good intention of trying to encourage people to talk and gauge their reactions. I trust in our Town PRs that they wouldn't easily trust Sheridan. While there are surprisingly easy-to-trust townsfolks like those Mafia Mafia Villagers on the other side of the town, I'm hoping our fellow Villagers will be more cautious than those people. Sheridan's claim may have made some of our townsfolk feel uneasy but IMO we need not worry about her as long as she doesn't get critical town information (those pertaining to PRs) this early. Granted she's telling the truth about her claim that she will have a Coyote reading when investigated (so any investigation on her wouldn't clear her), but there are still other ways to verify her like tracking/watching her at night if we have those PRs. So let's not worry about her at the moment, at the very least her claim got people talking and that's always good for the town.

Yosh! It would be best for those scum Red Coyote Gang to turn themselves in or else feel the unforgiving wrath of the sheriff!!!

Showing my support to a new host! Put me first on the reserve list, but if you need more players feel free to 'activate' me . 1. Isla Paradisa, BloodBrick II, Prison Riot, Gotham City, IMHOTEP, Yakuza (substitute), EB Mafia II, Mafia Mafia. 2. Here's the tricky part of my participation, I'll be on a 5-day vacation from July 5-9 so I cannot guarantee my participation during that time. But outside those 5 days, I'm good for the game. 3. Considering I was vanilla townie on every freakin' game I've played on (except for almost all-scum Prison Riot gang war), this has to be my favorite role since it shows you can win and/or contribute to your team's win even without power roles/night actions.

A little bit of customization (removal of tribal face prints) in Gorzan's gorilla headpiece gives a more appropriate fiercer Gorilla Grodd than the CMS gorilla.

Even it was generally an open game set-up, I understand if Zepher wanted to give the God Pill a "mysterious"/unknown effect from the start. Don't get me wrong, I actually didn't like the God Pill's effects since it robbed the town of its most powerful weapon - the lynch votes, but I didn't want to complain about it in the middle of the game since that's part of the "unknowns" of signing up for this game. People may or may not like it, but they have no choice but to deal with it as one of the game mechanics, and I was glad to see that both town and scum sides (or even the SK) were resourceful enough to use it to their advantage.

Now I don't get the complaints about the mechanics of the game when it was clearly stated from the very start in the sign-up thread. Zepher couldn't have been clearer with these from the very start. Everybody knew about this highly-night action-based game when they signed-up, now they're complaining about these just because things didn't go their way? Like I said in the deadboard, the losing side will always have some things to complain about, if the scum have won then it would be the townies who will have stern words to the host. If people were uncomfortable with too many bulletproofs, or having too many 'random chance', etc. in the game from the very start then they shouldn't have signed up in the first place. When you enter a game you should expect and prepare for the worst, and in the end just treat it as a game as it is simply just that - a game. Are you really being serious about this? People should discuss for the "entertainment of the dead and/or outside watchers"? The scum revealed themselves, there was nothing much to be talked about (but in fairness I really applaud fhomess' very intellectual mind games towards WBD in the end). I have been in games where it was eerily silent in the last couple of days, but there are still on-going stuff privately (recent one I remember was EBII), so this is not really something new. It is up to the players how they play the game, it may not be entertaining to you but you have to respect the way they play.

Excellent game by all participants - Town, Scum, and SK alike. I think all sides did what they could to win, and the fact that the win could've gone to either of the three factions and the fact that the game was ultimately decided in the last minute of the last day says a lot about the mechanics of the game - that despite the 'random chance' aspect of the game each side had a realistic shot of winning given their resourcefulness (using the rules to their advantage) and dedication to the game (spending extra hours to get the proper pills). Congrats to everyone, I'm honestly impressed by how most of the payers did: Whole scum team - you managed to have the SK side with you (until the last minute) and the fact the you were able to turn the game from a most certain defeat to a probable victory says a lot about your strategy as a team. Esurient (SK) - you almost pulled-off the victory, and that is enough evidence to say that you played your cards very well in this game. Good job! Town - even if I was not part of the inner town circle I knew a lot of people stepped-up in this game: Hinckley once again rallying the town early in the game (still can't believe how players could claim to him/trust him so easily! ), Tammo for being the other Town leader to balance things out with Hinckley, and Rufus and fhomess for ultimately winning it for the town. Even vanillas were key to the town like mostlytechnic and Adam. Great job everbody!

I'm a fan of Zoids and I'm really impressed on how both of you captured the overall look and details of each zoid even in such a small scale (some nifty building techniques there!). Great job guys!

Comparison of the Gorilla Striker with other LEGO Mechs: Click image for hi-res version LXF sources: 6862 - Tontus, 9448 - Zarkan, 60008 - CMS4, 8970 - prateek, 70500, 70505, 70704 - penguinz, 70708 - KDM

Thanks Zeph!

Hey look, I quoted PMs from other players: For the town!

I'm not familiar with this Gurren Lagann, but after a quick Google search, that mecha does look like the Gorilla Striker having similar 'bodies shaped as heads'.

Thanks for the comments! All the second wave sets were already available in stores here in Singapore this week (first week of June). I picked this set only since it's the one that got my interest the most. I'll just probably get the other Chima minifigs of my interest (Grizzam the white gorilla, Furty the Fox, and Skinnet the Skunk) either through the Speedorz sets or BL. I hear you. Ever since this set got my attention, and now that I got it, I feel that I have to complete all the Chima minifigs (or at least a representative for each tribe). I think it is the best vehicle in the Chima theme (with Eris' Eagle Interceptor a close second). And nice to know someone recognized the One Piece soundtrack!

I’ve always thought that the Legends of Chima theme won’t appeal to the AFOL in me considering it is primarily targeted to kids, but surprisingly one new set in the second wave of this theme suddenly captured my interest – the new 70008 Gorzan’s Gorilla Striker. We’ve seen lions, crocodiles, eagles, ravens, and wolves before, and now the second chapter of the Legends of Chima introduces us to the newest tribe in the world of Chima – the Gorillas. For some reason I find these new Gorilla characters/minifigs really appealing, they look so adorably ‘brute and cute’. And it certainly doesn’t hurt that the set includes a great-looking gorilla mech – probably one of, if not, the best Chima vehicles released. So let’s take a closer look at this set with this review… Set Information Set Name: Gorzan's Gorilla Striker Set Number: 70008 Theme: Legends of Chima Year: 2013 Pieces: 505 Minifigures: 4 Price: US$49.99 Links: Brickset | Bricklink (not yet listed) | LEGO Shop@Home (not yet listed) The Box One of the best aspects about the Chima sets is their ‘customized boxarts’ depicting the main character each set, in this case it’s Gorzan’s face prominently displayed in the upper right corner beside the LEGO and Chima logos. The main boxart presents the set with a battle scene between the Gorilla tribe with their Gorilla Striker mech versus their lone Raven opponent. One minor nitpick with the graphics is the way the mini-tree build was photoshopped in the background looks ‘a bit off’, it’s as if it was just plastered directly on top of the trees. The back shows the obligatory play features of the set, on an slightly more organized layout than usual (the panels are properly aligned compared to more random placement in other themes’ set boxes). Another unusual detail are the text describing the play features in all the panels (in six different languages), which we don’t normally see with other sets. An image showing the face-off between Gorzan and Rizzo on the upper right corner gives a nice touch to the relatively subdued blue background. There is an ad on the lower right corner for the LEGO Chima Game online, which provides another interactive play platform for Chima fans. I haven’t played the game, nor I have the intention to, but it’s good to see TLG adapting to the current age of mobile online technology, as evidence by the iPad/tablet graphic on top. The top of the box displays the minifigures of the set and the 1:1 panel. The box is so long that there are lots of unoccupied background space. The minifig display at the top of the box has full body action shots of the minifigs while the one in front of the box shows the ID profile shots with the respective character names. I like this variation in presentation unlike in other themes (i.e. the Lone Ranger) where both minifig line-ups have the same poses. The main character of this set, Gorzan, is shown in the 1:1 inset. The Contents Four numbered bags of LEGO, three loose pieces, an instruction booklet, and a small sticker sheet are what we get from this set. The Instruction Booklet The instruction booklet has the same coverart and horizontal orientation as the box, though the booklet is meant to be read vertically inside. The instructions have a conservative plain light bluish background and lack the faint images detailing on the pages that other themes’ instruction booklets have. I also noticed some pages have a lot of steps like the one pictured above, dividing the page into two sections. AFOLs probably won’t have problems with this, but younger kids may have to be careful when reading the instructions so as not to miss any step. Click the image for hi-res version I was a bit surprised that there was an ad midway through the booklet (first time I encountered one) and I thought that I may have gotten an incomplete instruction booklet. But it was just a centerfold (that is meant to be taken out of the booklet if one wishes to) showcasing all the Chima character minifigs including the new ones from the second wave. The Sticker Sheet A small sheet of stickers for added decorative detail on the set is included. The Pieces Bag #1 All the minifig parts are contained in the first bag, along with the pieces needed to build the Raven tree/vehicle contraption. Love the dark red foliage pieces. A brick separator is included too. Bag #2 The medium azure pieces stand out among the sea of the usual blacks, greys, and browns. Bag #3 There are a lot of interesting parts on Bag #3: a. Bananas! You get 7 of ‘em. Yum-yum! b. There are several huge pieces in this bag, particularly those 3x3 and 6x6 quarter circle round corner bricks (first time in black) and the medium azure octagon plates. c. Lots of multiple pieces in this bag! (17 x brown round plates, 8 x black round bricks, 8 x black dome heads, 8 x mechanical arms, etc…) Bag #4 The are still multiple pieces in this bag but not as much as in the third bag. The colors are consistent with the black-brown-grey-medium azure general motif of the pieces. Interesting Pieces Since this set is not yet listed in Bricklink I don’t have the exact piece names, but these are the ones that was interesting for me: The black technic part, the 1x2 curved slope, the hammer head piece and knuckle hand accessory. The 2x3 curved slope also seems to be a new part (first time I’ve seen it). The Minifigures The highlight of the minifig line-up is obviously the new Gorilla characters: Gorzan, Grimloo, and G’loona. I like the fact that despite being part of the same animal tribe they have unique colors and detailing (just like the other tribes). The Rizzo Raven minifig isn’t new and has been released in two previous sets before. Gorzan The main gorilla character of Legends of Chima is Gorzan, a black gorilla and a great warrior of his tribe. He is armed with a giant hammer and sports a battle armor with a Chi crystal. There is a slight discrepancy with the head markings from the TV show character, but I presume this minifig is the “battle version” of Gorzan having different “war face markings”. Gorzan’s fierce expression is fit for a great warrior of the Gorilla Tribe. The light green war face paints goes well with his black skin/hair color. Removing the armor the full print details of both the front and back torsos can be clearly seen. Gorzan has a double-sided head showing a battle-raged angry face on one side and a happy and relieved expression on the other. Grumlo Having a lighter grey skin/hair tone, Grumlo looks less fierce than Gorzan with his more laid-back mouth expression in his gorilla head. The white hair on the cheeks indicate that he’s probably one of the older Gorilla tribesmen(?). Grumlo has the same laid-back facial expression on both sides of his head. Also, gotta love those two bananas tuck in his waist at the back! G’loona A young female brown gorilla, G’loona can’t be anymore ‘girlier’ with all the floral decorations on her head and body. She has a child-like expression on her gorilla headpiece emphasized with her buck teeth and pimpled cheeks. Her weapon of choice is a pair of “giant clobbering fists” (for lack of a better term). She has a similar expression in her head like the one in the headpiece, while the other side has a slightly pissed-off look. The printing of her front and back torso are consistent showing her leaf brassiere with flower decors. Rizzo The scavenger of the Raven Clan, Rizzo sports his signature metal eyepatch and pegleg and armed with his dual-purpose blaster-axe. His overall appearance is the stereotypical “black villain look”. Like the rest of the Chima minifigs he has a double-sided head having an angry evil look and a surprised/scared alternate expression. Minifig Weapons Rizzo’s dual-function blaster-axe, Gorzan’s and Grumlo’s battering sledgehammers, and G’loona’s clobbering fists. The Build Bag #1 Build First to be built are all the minifigures and the tree-catapult contraption. I’ve been used to sets with the multiple minifigs not built from one bag, so this is something I haven’t seen in a quite some time. Bag #2 Build This is the starting point of building the Gorilla Striker mech. A gear mechanism inside will provide an important functionality which we’ll see later. The main body/torso of the mech is semi-finished at this point. Note the prominent use of brackets – this will be essential in the SNOT design of the mech. Bag #3 Build This stage of the build is where it gets repetitive as there are quite a number of multiple builds, like 8 x fingers, 2 x arms, 2 x shoulders. Kids may need more patience to get through this stage. An interesting part of build is the banana cannon weapon. Needless to say, the concept behind this cannon using banana as ammunition is crazy genius! We get a half-mech after the third bag build. From this you’ll already expect what would be the last part of the build is… Bag #4 Build The finishing touches are built from the last bag, namely the waist and leg parts. Attaching these to the main body and we now have the finished mech! I’d like to show the ‘segmented’ style of the build with this image – the whole build process is systematically designed to build the separate body parts and attached together in the end. The Completed Set Leftover Pieces Lots of the usual 1x1 spare parts, though I fear I might’ve missed a step after seeing that 2x2 round plate. The Set Features Gorzan’s Gorilla Striker As the ‘star of the set’, the Gorilla Striker mech is one huge, bulky, and imposing build. The overall black color scheme with medium azure highlights is based on Gorzan’s own skin/hair tone combo. The mech having long arms and short legs approximates those of real-world gorillas. And if by any chance you haven’t noticed it, the details of the “body” are actually parts of the face of a gorilla (see the eyes, nose, and two sharp teeth?). Quite clever design isn’t it? The back is less covered compared to the front, which actually provides unobstructed access to the various play mechanisms. Prominently seen on the side views are the wide curved shoulders of the mech – which is my one of my favourite aspects of the design as it gives the mech an imposing muscular brute appearance. There are also a pair of tubes on both sides going to and from the hand and shoulders, whose function I assume is a fuel link that provides power to those huge arms (yeah, I just made that stuff out ). There is however an noticeable flaw in the design – one of the drawbacks of having a large and heavy body and small stubby legs is there is instability in making the mech stand up. The mech has tendency to fall back when stood up straight, so one has to stoop it down a bit to stabilize the center of gravity (as evidenced in both images). Mech Movement If my count is correct there are 20 different points of articulation which allows for various movements of the mech’s limbs. These movements are mostly for play purposes, and due to the aforementioned instability of the mech, action poses are somewhat limited. The main action movement of the mech are the synchronized pounding of its huge arms controlled by a rotating knob at the back (remember the gear mechanism at the start of the build?). Here’s a video showing how it works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilZTZ5O-idk I really like this function! So simple yet so playable. I’m sure kids would enjoy this feature of the mech. Left: The mech seats one pilot at the top, but the space is very limited and there is some difficulty putting the Gorzan inside because of his battle armor. The banana cannon also sits atop the right shoulder of the mech, Iron Patriot-style. Right: There is a clip at the back to put Gorzan’s hammer while he’s operating the mech. A couple of studs in the shoulders allow both G’loona and Grumlo to hitch a ride on the Gorilla Striker. Flick-fire Missiles Flick-fire Missile lovers would surely enjoy this mech as it is equipped with not one, not two, not three… but SIX flick-fire missile hidden inside the mech’s body! There is an option to open only two flick-fire hatches, or you could go all-out with six missiles and destroy the opponent by opening the whole body cover. All flick-fires are fired by push-levers at the back. There is also a hidden crystal inside the body compartment. Rizzo’s Tree Catapult This build is composed of a tree catapult and a vehicle on top. This catapult works like any catapult would, or does it really? Well, I tried (look below): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYLaW9MdUms I guess you have to press the lever on the sides for it to work properly. Dumb Kiel There is also a miniature catapult beside the tree, where Rizzo could fire away anti-gorilla mech blackberry bombs. Here's a comparison of the Gorilla Striker with other LEGO Mechs: Click image for hi-res version LXF sources: 6862 - Tontus, 9448 - Zarkan, 60008 - CMS4, 8970 - prateek, 70500, 70505, 70704 - penguinz, 70708 - KDM Rating the Set Design – 9/10 I am absolutely impressed with the overall design of the mech – from the aesthetics, color scheme, functionality, etc. The only minor criticism for me is the instability of the mech for action posing purposes, but that wouldn’t be much of an issue for children I suppose. Parts – 9/10 It’s great to get a good combination of new parts, new colors of existing pieces, and a nice variation of colors from the usual blacks, greys and browns to colorful medium azure. The multiple number of several pieces will also be useful for future MOCs. Build – 8/10 While there are some several repetitive steps, there are a number of interesting building techniques particularly those involving SNOT. Minifigs – 10/10 What can I say I really love the new Gorilla minifigures – they’re colourfully unique and highly detailed. Even the villain Rizzo minifig ain’t bad either (no pun intended). Playability – 10/10 There will definitely no shortage of playability with this set – from the mech’s arm-stomping action, flick-fire missiles, banana cannon, tree catapult – kids will spend countless enjoyable hours of playtime! Price – 9/10 The price slightly lower than the 10 cents/parts ratio (9.899c), even with the large parts the $50 price tag is more than justified IMO. Overall: 92% This set is definitely worth the purchase – from the new gorilla minifigs to the Gorilla Striker mech itself – I recommend it to anyone who would like to try our the Legends of Chima theme. Parting Shot Thanks for your time reading the review! C&C’s are always welcome. :monkey:

Vote: Snake Charmer (Darth Potato)

Pill of Valhalla please

That's a very solid plan Serious Roleplayer, I'm all up for it. Darth Potato is as good as lynched today, and I think we'll be able to draw the scum out with both the pill choices and lynch voting strategy. I understand why I am in the final list of suspects, since I know at this stage of the game with the town block winding down the list of suspects, every unconfirmed player is a possible scum. So I'll just let my actions do the talking. As for the suspects, I have suspected the PGO since Day 1, but haven't really pursued him since there have been better lynch candidates that have been brought up in the past two days. His failure to vote yesterday is another red flag in my book. No matter what reason he may have (going to church, check-up in a hospital, going to the bathroom, etc.), I just don't think that is very helpful especially when the town needed every vote from all the remaining townies (good thing we made a successful lynch despite lacking the needed 75% majority). So if I will have my say, I'd lynch Darth Potato and the PGO today, but it is up to the Town Leaders to decide on that matter.

Doinks! I took the apparent joke seriously.