Heroica: Lego almost remakes HeroQuest.

A few people might remember a game put out years ago by Milton Bradley (with miniature design done by the talented people at Games Workshop) that was essentially the gateway board game into playing pen and paper rpgs like D&D. I bet fewer people realize that a kick ass series of games in the same vein and spirit of HeroQuest were released by Lego Games under the name of Heroica.

Even the map reminds me of old school NES game maps you'd get in the manuals.

 The set I am covering today is the Draida expansion, which was one of five (technically six) board game styled Lego sets that could be assembled in a Voltron forming way to create one long winding dungeon/castle/cave/forest crawl.

The rules for the game are insanely basic, with an oversized die that is rolled for movement, and depending on the set you have, various enemies, weapons, items, and micro figures to use as heroes on your quest. (<--- HA! Subliminal!)

It and many other games that have been developed for the board games line from Lego are not the most complex in explanation, and in all instances, not unlike the open ended aspects of building with Lego bricks, there are huge open possibilities to completely customizing the rules for this game to really ramp up the difficulty, quest intricacies, and danger for the characters. Which was even something done for the other game HeroQuest by many rabid fans.

Front and back of the box. The nice aspect of the size of the box is as noted on the back, you can store the board completely assembled in it's box when done.

The unfortunate thing is that more and more, mint copies of games for Heroica are becoming scarcer by the year, with prices climbing on the aftermarket very quickly ever since interest recently renewed. Draida was the first set released back in June of 2011 with an msrp of $15. The line lasted for about a year and a half and culminated with the retail release of the Ilrion add-on (although the incredibly rare Ganrash promotional set was available in Q3 of 2012 through a few places, I only saw one polybagged copy at Planet Comicon two years ago for $70).

The fortunate thing is that in some retail shops, like Hastings, where I found this box set, it was marked at clearance for $1.99, and had a pack in Nintendo DS game for Lego Harry Potter. Those are the kinds of toy finds I LIVE for.

(Top) Contents of the box all polybagged alongside Harry Potter for the NDS. (Bottom) Shot of one of the polybag contents.

Lego really went all out with Heroica's design and feel, and I think there was a lot of promise and potential that could have come out of this series if it had been out for a while longer. For a while animated adventures and even an online rendition of the board game was available on the Lego website.

The box set came with a game rules manual, combination comic and world map, and instructions on building Draida.

The set is small, and is actually the starting point when all of the sets are assembled together, but did come with a large amount of micro figs. (Inset image) A lego prybar is included for kids (and impatient adults with large fingers) to separate bricks.

The assembly didn't take long at all. Maybe a total of fifteen minutes, if that long. But in this case, as I'd mentioned before, the game aspect is what is being pushed more than the Lego form factor.

(Upper Left) Included comic adventure. (Upper Right) Wizard and Barbarian hero character micro figs. (Bottom) Goblin soldiers and Goblin General in the rear, standing in front of the "Crystal of Deflection".

And in case you have never seen these Lego micro figs compared to the main line mini figs, here's a comparison for you to check out...

I shall call him... mini me.

My final thoughts? If you have even the slightest love of board games and Lego, get these while you can now, before these sets get really high in price. The fun factor for this series can really be off the chart, and only limited by your imagination. 

Until next time! - Mario, the Rogue Hobbyist.
 

Stats	Rating/Information
Item	"Draida" Heroica Game
Made by	Lego
Rarity	Rare (The variant with the pack in HP game seems to be a bit rarer.)
Classification	Out of Production
Condition	Mint, but some shelf wear.
Procured	Hastings - Warrensburg, Missouri
Worth	$40 (based on current eBay findings)
Investment	$2
Further Research	N/A
Trivia & Fun Facts	The Heroica line has a small but devout group of enthusiasts that have been creating new content and rules for playing in fan forums and sites, to having new official ideas submitted to Lego Idea. Check out the very cool Balkhur Moors set proposal on Lego Ideas here! And and incredible dual level build here.

RELEASE THE mini SQUADTS! - NOZZEL s001.50

This is the new NOZZEL S001.50 being released today at noon central time. These pieces will only be available for the next 24 hours in the Project Squadt store.

NOZZEL S001.50 is a 3.5" vinyl, cloth and ABS - Includes: 2 sets of arms, sAK-74, parka and removable helmet. It is available for $40 plus $20 shipping worldwide. Orders of 2-3 pieces will receive a flat $25 shipping rate and the figures will ship in 6-8 weeks.

Announcing CoolFun Magazine Issue 1

Announcing Issue #1 of CoolFun Magazine, a new monthly from Singapore featuring toys, games, design, movies, pop culture and lifestyle coverage! Issue 1 hits "newsstands" in late January and we're getting a limited stock of them. Click here to preorder the 112-page inaugural issue!

SUPER SERIES SUNDAYS: 1:6-scale Tenacious Toozie Scloozie Shagghoulie Drops Sunday Jan 11

 

 A traditional ghoul is a desert-dwelling, flesh eating demon. In ancient times, ghouls dwelled in burial grounds and other uninhabited places. The Shagghoulie is a fiendish type of modern ghoul, residing in the Las Vegas area.

While ancient ghouls lured unwary people into the desert wastes or abandoned buildings to slay and devour them, modern Shagghoulies lure only the semi-wary, and tend to attack in highly populated areas as a group, using a swarming action.

Luckily, they no longer kill. These weirdos are content to simply eat the hair, fingernails, dry skin, and any other dead tissue of the living. The creatures also prey on young children's shoelaces, drink rum, steal credit cards, and, on holidays eat the dead. They also have a nearly fatal fashion sense, stunning their prey with their fabulous shaggadelic jumpsuits.

They are known to be mediocre public speakers and occasionally suffer from dandruff. They are great dancers but highly antisocial. Do not approach or attempt to touch them. If they become startled, the fur of their shag suits can stiffen to needle-like spines.

The Tenacious Toozie Scloozie Shagghoulie was created in vibrant blue fur specifically for Tenacious Toozie! The We Become Monsters Shagghoulie figures are about 13 inches tall and feature an articulated 1:6-scale body with custom resin hands, feet and head, and a hand-sewn jumpsuit. This is an articulated resin art toy / mixed media piece, hand cast and hand painted by Chris Moore of We Become Monsters.

All Shagghoulies come with a free micro SLAB. SLABs are WBM's waste reduction program that turns waste resin into art.

The Tenacious Toozie Scloozie Shagghoulie will be available for pre-order on the Super Series Sundays page starting at 7PM EST on Sunday January 11th, and shipping to customers 2 weeks later. This Shagghoulie is limited to just 10 pieces in this colorway (with all other colorways now sold out) and priced at $100 each.

Lego Indiana Jones Minifigures (a partial review)

I don't think I've ever met anyone who disliked the Indiana Jones movies (the fourth one didn't happen, and Shia Lebouf is a toolbag). They were the reason that a great many people my age went into the field of archeology. Of all the movies in the series, my absolute favorite was The Last Crusade. The story, cinematography, humor, and action are damn near flawless.

When a slew of Lego sets based on the adventures of Indy came out, I was not yet back into collecting Lego like I am now. But my favorite scene for a long time out of Crusade had been the motorcycle chase and eventual impromptu jousting moment between the Jones duo and a German soldier, both on motorbikes. So when I came across this at TRU back in 2008, I picked it up.

The likeness done for Sean Connery is one of the best I've seen on a minifigure, down to the details on the glasses. Harrison Ford's sardonic smirk and 5 o'clock shadow are also well represented. (Inset) A small map to the Holy Grail is also included.

I get a kick out of when the minifigure graphics are as well designed as the ones shown above. Nice touches on Dr. Jones's outfit include the polka dots on his bow tie (though not movie accurate), and his Grail journal that Indy was not supposed to have brought to Germany, to the shirt wrinkles and belts on Indy.

There are a couple of things that are  off from the icon scene (a still from it is shown inset), including the fact that Indy still is wearing a tie, his satchel is olive green, there is a headlight on the front of the bike, and a spare tire was on the rear of the sidecar, as well as Dr. Jones having a trilby with it's brim all the way down for his headwear (the Lego part looks like a British Empire pith helmet to me) , and his tie in the movie was actually much darker.

Considering that this motorbike uses almost all pre-existing parts for it's construction, Lego did a respectable job with the end result. It's easy to put together and holds up very well.

There are places on the back for a whip and a satchel.

Regardless of some of the inaccuracies, the motorbike set up looks nice.

I plan on updating this later with the rest of the set as soon as I locate it, but I did want to at least get this little favorite of mine showcased on here.

Thanks for reading, I have many more reviews coming now that I've started opening and photographing a larger portion of my collections. - Mario, the Rogue Hobbyist.
 

Stats	Rating/Information
Item	Indiana Jones and Henry Jones Sr. (part of Set #7620 Motorcycle Chase)
Made by	Lego
Rarity	Very Uncommon - no longer sold in retail
Classification	Modern - Released in 2008
Condition	Very Good
Procured	ToysRUs, KCMO
Worth	around $50 as of Dec 2014 if in a sealed box
Investment	$14
Further Research	www.lego.com
Trivia & Fun Facts	When casting for the role of Henry Jones Sr., Sean Connery was cast because Steven Spielberg and George Lucas considered that the only man who could play Indy's father, was James Bond.

Julian by Logan Fitzpatrick x Everyday Mooonday

A South Korean based company named Everyday Mooonday, has teamed up with Brooklyn based artist Logan Fitzpatrick, to create "Julian". Everyday Mooonday is a Gallery based in Seoul, Korea. Logan Fitzpatrick actually had a solo show at the Everyday Mooonday Gallery, which ran from March 7 to April 11, 2014. "Julian" is Everyday Mooonday's first art toy, which is limited to just 500 pieces. Standing at 15cm (~5.9 inches) and made of soft vinyl, Julian's $59 price may seem a bit high but the piece does translate Logan's art very well. Hopefully this won't be the last art toy produced by Everyday Mooonday. Be sure to follow Everyday Mooonday and Logan Fitzpatrick on each of their respective websites.

 - Mark-Anthony

Google+