#if not i will soldier on through ebay

[paracosmicessence]

okay idea

like does this make sense

idk my brain was bored even tho i wanted to keep drawing my sonadow fankids this weekend but i don’t think that’s gonna happen

ok but fr tho my mindset changes from “pure fluff sonadow so cute soft” to “i need to make a doohickey right now” like phases of the moon it’s fucking crazy and i don’t like it actually

[ka-19]

just came home from work to find out that my card is paused im going to FUCKING EXPLODE

[bruhcodes]

One Year of Bruhcodes

i thought about the best platform to dump this essay on for a while, and unironically, tumblr might be the best. sorry for dragging you all to tumblr for this i promise you don't have to stay for too long.

back in 2020, i wrote two scripts. youtube scripts. don't know why, just had two ideas and wanted to put them into words. those ended up being a video about handheld videogames being playable on home consoles, and the original xbox i had just ordered off of ebay. what i DIDNT think of was a new super mario bros review. that wouldn't come until about two years later when one of my friends said they'd watch my videos if i actually made a youtube channel.

WOW, you are a strong soldier. i don't know how you made it through that. i don't know how ANY of you guys made it through my early work. but here we are! a year later! and i'm in a position where i can write out a huge thank you note to my FANS(??!?!?!?!!!) that all watch my videos every monday night. that's so cool!!!

the journey so far has been nothing short of incredible. i've spoken to people i never would've thought i'd be able to speak to, pushed myself out of my comfort zone again and again and again to make content that i truly enjoy making, produced things i would've never dreamt i'd be capable of making. and that's only a year. i have to thank you all, again, and again, and again, and again, because honest to god i would be nowhere without the support from you guys. seeing people in the comments sections, in the discord server, it's amazing and i get so happy seeing people interact and just... talk about stuff.

it's all very heartwarming. even this.

in all seriousness though - thank you all, so much, for this past year. i said i hope we make it to another 6 months in the video, but if this went on for 6 centuries i don't think i'd mind. i love making content and i don't think i'll stop until i'm physically unable to make content. or maybe mentally. maybe making these videos has been reducing my mental ability this entire time and slowly i'll become incapacitated and on life support?

eh, worth it.

[karltface]

Oddball mystery box!

Back in the day, we didn't have no interwebs. If we wanted to meet fellow geeks, we'd do it through fan clubs, and ads in nerdy magazines. Trade and sale by mail was the order of the day. It was a dark time, but there was something about bartering toys back and forth that.... it just hits different. And I've managed to strike up just such a relationship with an eBay seller!

We exchange boxes of crap a few times a year, collaborating to an extent, but also throwing in lots of surprises. Now that I'm covering mystery boxes on the regular, I think it's high time I started including these.

We'll start with Slithe. I'm not a huge fan of Thundercats, but this guy is still a favorite because he captures the Rankin-Bass animation style remarkably well. He's just got that look about him, y'know? Nobody drew wretched lizardfolk quite like Rankin-Bass. And the sculpting here outshines the rest of the line besides. Just a stellar piece all around, even without his axe.

Speaking of accessories- well, I'll get to that in a second. Here's Dr. Killemoff and a Radiation Ranger, from Toxic Crusaders. Rambo and Robocop may have been oddly adult properties to base cartoons on, but the Toxic Avenger? That's some next level shit. It was one of those environmentally conscious 'toons too, which is doubly hilarious in context.

Anyway, Doc here is an alien cockroach monster out to pollute the planet beyond repair, like we needed any help doing that. He's short his backpack and belt, but as a base figure, he's not a bad specimen. The Ranger (evil mooks) is damn near pristine.

I bring up accessories because this box nearly finishes out my Bonehead. Basically the leader of the punks that accidentally created Toxie in the first place, the 'toon has him subsequently crashing his bike into a barrel of acid rain, withering into a near-skeletal horror with a powerful grudge. Mine had only the gas mask, and now he's a knife away from completion. Yay!

Here's a couple of fun little guys: an evil soldier from Air Raiders, and the snake dude from Dino Riders.

Air Raiders is a strange little property, revolving around air-powered missiles and a sort of 70s sci-fi periodical aesthetic. Distant planet, unsafe atmosphere, air supply controlled by totalitarian government, etc. Y'know what, this guy needs visual context.

There we go. The vehicle isn't quite complete, but yeah. Lots of swooping curves and rubber-tipped missiles. The heroes are looking pretty screwed here. I should track down something for them to ride on, at least.

Dino Riders, I've covered before, but the quick and dirty is that anthro aliens are fighting future humans on prehistoric earth, and they've kitted out a bunch of dinosaurs with armor and weapons. Simply amazing.

Moving on, we have a wonderful surprise in the form of Burnheart's shield and... well, flamethrower. Tonka's Supernaturals mostly stuck with a medieval theme, but the evil knight totally had a weirdly futuristic weapon.

I don't pretend to understand that, but he's the only villain I don't have, and this will save me a fair bit of money. Also, my Leech now has his crossbow, and there's another gun for the parts bin.

Speaking of the parts bin, there's a decent pile of sci-fi bits in here. Most I recognize from Transformers, others are less certain. The biggest surprise is 3/4 of a sprue of Morph-o-Droid guns. Now that's a deep cut. I'd literally never heard of them until I texted the guy wondering what the hell some of this was, but it turns out I did in fact own a secondhand one as a kid. And now I'm half compelled to find another. Dammit.

This wasn't the most exciting breakdown for general audiences, I'm sure, but it made my week on this end. Hooray for old-school toy trades!

[the-last-human-war]

GodofWar Punisher WarMachine FutureWinterSoldier MolagBal Sauron

trafficking bus, and a Kangaroo won and shredded both of them... When the Slave Car Dealership was about to award the Kangaroo Champion his Shredded Slap-Boxing Champion Slave Dealer Suit for Long Arms, some random Kid chopped his Legs with a Machete and slid outta there with the You Snooze you Lose Suit and a Minivan attached to possibly 5 Felonies. These Child Soldiers are permanently painted green, and their mouths are stitched shut so they can appear like they're from an Oddworld of Mudokens. Even their genes are spliced with elements from Meteors. Their eyes are stretched open. Their fingers and toes are chopped off, so they only have 3 fingers etc. They have beaks. They're naturally Anorexic. They have no nose or ears. They have egg heads. They can Possess others. They can Resurrect others. They are very Sneaky. They can Possess Beasts. They Fart Green Gases from Planet Venus. They are very Challenged and the Answer takes a long time to reach them, and when it does it crashes into them by Freak Accident, like Divine Serendipity. Like Darth Jar Jar. Idk maybe. And Yellow Eyes of the Sith. Looks a bit like a Ninja Turtle. Most of their heads is usually Bald. Maybe they're old from so many Resurrections and have a lot of Bald Spots. They have a Slave's Posture. And explain to me... Why is there some Naked Guy running around with his Ass on Fire!!?? Like some dumbass nigga decided to skinny dip in a Volcano and now he can't get the Lava off of him. I told you dawg, stay off the Angel Dust. This Fool think he Invincible. Searing through enemy Tanks like a Sumo Wrestler shopping for a Chihuahua at Pet's Smart. It's just wrong, on so many levels. Registered Sex Offender. Public Indecency. Horrid. Cross. Perverse. Sacrilege. Rapist. Optical Bleeding. Barbecue Harassment. Motherless. Dalmatian Terrorist. Violated. Nursing Home. Ice Cream Man. Fire Eater Clown. Bingo with Agnes and Margerie. Wok Fire Kung Pao Tiger Cow. Cris Angel Intern. Vegas Betting on Nascar. Apollo 1-10. Sputnik 2.0. Chernobyl. Deep Fried Habanero Hot Tamales Secret Surprise Tortas. Anything Canada tries to Succeed in. IKEA Door Dash dropped off by Amazon from a Sky high Drone Parachute drop, retrieved by a Dog, which was transported by DHS, UPS, FedEx, and USPS 3 orbits around the globe, which was ordered by a Friend of course who they picked up the package from some guy on Craigslist, so then the Friend could send it off from their own Ebay, and this Craigslist guy found this Package off a suggestion from Yelp that was mentioned from a TikTocker on Reddit, from snooping over someone's iPhone while they were reading an excerpt to their book club in Barnes N Noble while also stealing their Star Bucks, and the TikTocker was Tweeting about different Cities with the Best Vending Machine Snacks, except on Yelp it turns out there supposedly is a special Vending Machine in Bagdad, Iraq that contains a Mystery Snack Bag with Every Pokémon Card hidden inside and Dippin Dots that Never Melt amongst other Mystery things like The Ultimate Holy Crusade Grail or Pandora's Chex Mix, so this Craigslist guy actually finds it but he gets shot by poison lead bullets and gets mortar shrapnel to the skull, so he changes his name to Cypher and he doesn't have long to live so he starts the Les Tres Infantantes Program and places the Pokémon GO Grail Package in an Antique

[surveysand]

thirty-three.

1~ What quality do you value most highly in others? acceptance.

2~ Are you more aggressive or mellow? aggressive.

3~ Who has made the biggest sacrifice for you? my parents.

4~ Do you take any vitamins or medication? i take several medications. 5~ Do you want to grow old with someone? yes.

6~ Do you treat others better or worse than yourself and why? i definitely treat people better than i do myself. at the end of the day, i'm always going to be my harshest critic so it would take me being a truly vile person to treat others worse than i already treat myself. i also always try to extend love and kindness to those around me because, as the saying goes, you never can know what someone's truly going through,

7~ What sound is annoying you right now? nothing, really.

8~ Where was your last vacation to? ohio.

9~ Where was your last car ride to? from applebee's to my apartment.

10~ Where did you last walk to? some trees outside of my apartment.

11~ What gives you a peaceful feeling? listening to relaxing, slow music. lying in the shade on a sunny day. looking out the window while on a car ride.

12~ Are you a light sleeper? yes, i'm startled quite easily.

13~ When you sleep next to someone who usually falls asleep first? me. i'm always tired.

14~ How many people have a piece of your heart? one.

15~ What do your salt and pepper shakers look like? they're in the white and black plastic ones i bought them in, lol. nothing special.

16~ When was the last time you hurt yourself? i accidentally burned my finger a few weeks ago, so i guess when i did that.

17~ Would you rather live in the city, suburbs or the country? the city.

18~ Have you ever built something? yes, a few pieces of furniture.

19~ Are you more of a maker and giver, or a taker and user?

if i'm being honest, a taker and user. i always feel like people do more for me than i do for them, no matter how much i love and try to give them more.

20~ Do you take naps? always. i'm constantly tired. i probably take one or two everyday.

21~ Do you buy holiday gifts early or at the last minute? depends on the person i'm buying for and what i plan to get, but i try to buy as early as i can.

22~ Do you laugh when there is no joke and dance when there is no music? i guess sometimes to both.

23~ If someone else were to describe you what would you hope they would say? accepting.

24~ What is the dirtiest habit you can think of? picking one's nose.

25~ Do you ever need ‘quiet time’? absolutely.

26~ Do you think it is harder for a parent to outlive their child or for their child to outlive them? a parent to outlive their child.

27~ What was your best find from a flea market, garage sale, ebay or thrift? on ebay, i found a older taylor swift t-shirt for way cheaper than what they typically go for.

28~ What is one selfish thing you tend to do? i ignore people sometimes when i feel too tired to respond.

29~ What kinds of people do you find intimidating? in workplaces, higher-ups and those with more power and authority compared to me.

30~ Out of everyone you know who has the most unique personality? one of my best friends.

31~ When do you do your best thinking? late at night.

32~ What was a choice that you didn’t want to make but you had to? deciding whether to take a job opportunity that was too far for me to travel to but would've given my great experience.

33~ Have you ever written a letter to a soldier? no.

34~ What does your favorite coffee mug look like? i only have one that says "happy morning" on it, lol.

35~ What age do you think it is most difficult to be? early twenties.

36~ Do you think you could handle a day in jail? no.

37~ Who is the most overbearing person you know? myself. if that's a cop-out, i'd say my brother.

38~ Have you ever been on a trampoline? yes.

39~ What do you use batteries for the most often? remotes, i guess? most things i have plug in.

40~ Would you prefer to wrap your own presents or have them all gift wrapped? i love to wrap presents, so i'd rather do it myself.

[incorrectbatfam]

I see you’re on a headcannon roll here!! I know it’s pretty classic, but please do you have any Dick and Damian headcannons to share?

I'm trying to clear out my inbox. Most of these have been sitting here for a year or more.

Anyway...

Dick drove Damian to the countryside, dropped him at a protest in front of a factory farm, went to Bludhaven, brushed Bitewing's teeth, took Babs to lunch and a museum, and came back in time to pick Damian up before he could escalate a riot

Damian inherited his father's cooking skills. Dick's biggest accomplishment thus far is teaching Damian how to boil a potato

Damian tackled Dick down the stairs because Dick suggested a baking soda volcano as a science project

Dick makes dance Tiktoks as Nightwing as Damian (as Robin) duets with a reaction

Damian isn't afraid of scorpions, but he's not a fan. When Dick asked why, Damian said his grandfather kept a scorpion pit for soldiers who stepped out of line. Cue six months later when Dick goes on a mission in Nanda Parbat and turns out there is no scorpion pit

Damian bought a working replica of Green Arrow's bow on eBay. Dick confiscated that pretty quickly

For Damian's birthday, Dick takes him to a glass art museum that included glass blowing lessons

They have the same personal best for swimming laps

Damian went on a class field trip to the aquarium and to his mortifying surprise, it was the day Dick volunteered for the mermaid show

A running joke is whenever Damian travels, regardless of where he goes, he brings Dick back an Empire State Building keychain

Sometimes, after an all-nighter, they'll grab some snacks and a picnic blanket and watch the sunrise on the roof

Damian says he's too old for stickers, but Dick still puts a gold star on his mission reports

Every time they go grocery shopping, Dick needs to make sure Damian didn't smuggle a dozen lighters into the shopping cart

Dick had a Robin water bottle from when he was younger, which then got covered up with a Nightwing sticker. When he became Batman, Damian covered it up again and when he was back to Nightwing, Damian slapped a different Nightwing sticker on it and told him to stick to one thing

In art class, Damian painted a miniature pot and planted a mystery seed. After Damian died, Dick took it upon himself to continue looking after the sprout on his windowsill

They bought every battery-powered fan at Safeway for their road trip through New Mexico

They skip carnival psychics after a tarot reader told Damian he was gonna grow up to cause pain and destruction. It took everything in Dick not to sue that person

Damian brought Dick for Show and Tell. Dick did a yo-yo routine to an ABBA song

Cases involving kids are always the hardest on Dick because he can't help but see Damian in their place

One time Dick asked Damian "what'cha reading" and Damian said it was a short story for English called The Lottery. Out of curiosity, Dick looked it up and his reaction was basically "what the fuck"

[wackybuddiemewbs]

Random WIP snippets – an ongoing saga no one asked for

Because why not? The basic idea runs along those lines:

When the 118 is summoned to a field with actual trenches and not at all real soldiers of a world war, everyone is in for a bad surprise when the play turns dead serious. And it's not just time that's ticking for Buck and Eddie.

Cheers!

“I really hate these kinds of people,” Eddie laments as they emerge from another trench – yes, actual trench with barbwire and everything.

“Yeah, I never understood the fancy for reenacting war times,” Buck ponders. “Not if you can also cosplay fun things. Like actual… fictional superheroes!”

You get to choose to be anyone when you put on a costume. You could be Superman or Batman or Wonder Woman or Kermit… and you choose Random Dude 91845. Seriously?

“If they want to dress up in historical costumes, I don’t care. I don’t even care if someone thinks it’s cool to collect this kind of stuff. But those people? They make war out to be a kind of game. That lying in the trenches is. That seeing your friends die in the field is.” Eddie grinds his teeth as they continue their quest through the trenches.

It doesn't take a genius to figure that this is not one of Eddie’s favorite calls. And Buck wished it would have come on one of Eddie’s days off. But it’s not like those loons seem to have any care in the world for actual, real-world, real-time problems.

But yeah, it would’ve been better, had it happened any other day that Eddie’s not on the job.

Buck taps his partner on the back lightly, offering a small smile. “Yeah, well, once we cleared that part of the area, we can head back and you get to lecture those wannabes for the both of us. I bet Bobby’s gonna let you. He seemed royally pissed, too.”

It had been a strange call. Not that this is anything new around their department. They tend to receive some odd jobs ranging from sharks on a highway to people taping themselves to walls, naked.

A bunch of historical reenactors apparently found it a splendid idea to buy some actualweapons off of eBay and launch and shoot them for dramatic effect.

Or for authenticity, as they kept insisting. Repeatedly.

Needless to mention that this decision for dramatic effect resulted in many people getting hurt, hideouts and trenches on fire, and people getting stuck under all sorts of things in the trenches those freaks dug up to pretend at war.

Which may be the one authentic thing about all this.

Buck knew right when they got the info that his partner would react much more than he does, which is rare enough. But this hits way too close to home for Eddie, Buck knows. He didn’t even have to look at Eddie to know once the info came in.

People slipping into costumes, pretending to be soldiers in a historical war, glorifying what should horrify them, and still going on to pretend like that is at all normal? That may very well send a war veteran back to some bad places.

Buck had sworn to himself as they had gotten into the truck that he’d have an extra close eye on his partner. Eddie is normally calm and composed, but there are certain things that set him off edge. And that was guaranteed to be one of those things. Too close to home. Too close to a past you can’t ever shake off, even if you’re normally calm and composed about it all.

Buck enjoys watching documentaries about all sorts of things, so of course he watched his good share of war documentaries, too. And some of that stuff is surely interesting and good to know, but he never understood how that motivated people to put on a costume and pretend to shoot their friends, who are in turn pretending to shoot them, as they are all pretending to be enemies. Not when you could put that money to good use by actually supporting the troops or donating for veterans or literally anything else, but that’s what it is.

Right now, Buck just tries to make sure Eddie does not work himself up too much, to reign him in a bit, but just a bit. While Buck won’t say that out loud, he finds Eddie fussing kind of adorable, actually. Precisely because Eddie normally never loses his cool. He gets fidgety with his hands and there is that clip in his voice. And if things continue at this rate, of that much Buck is aware, Eddie is going to fall back into Spanish, too.

They have to clear the Southern part at the other end of the area before they can head back to reunite with the rest and hopefully call it a night. There are still two people missing who were supposed to enact the Germans meant to go down in blaze and glory.

“If you want to get the real experience, enlist and cry your way through basic training and then go home again!” Eddie continues to rant as they pass through another trench.

“Eds, you don’t have to tell me.”

“Well, we are trudging through mud to find the pendejosI would be saying it to otherwise, so you’ll have to bear with me here.”

Here we go.

“It’s fine,” Buck assures him. “Curse away, dude. Just wanted to make sure you don’t roast me for that stupidity, too. Coz that’s stupid even by my standards.”

It takes them another trench for Eddie to completely slip into Spanish cursing. Buck just leaves his partner to it, understanding that he needs to vent, no matter the language. It’s not like there’s any harm done with it.

Though from the bit of Spanish Buck understands thanks to his time in Peru, Eddie can express his anger so much more in detail in Spanish, and a lot more colorful, too. He makes a mental note to look up the one involving shit and milk, set on working thatinto conversation when around Eddie’s family to blame it on him for teaching him that.

Buck is pulled from his musings when one of the guys shouts – shrieks– from one of the trenches ahead. From what they can gather, he is fussing over his weapons in a way no person should, if he wants to be rescued.

“Eddie,” Buck mutters in a mildly warning tone, noting the other man gritting his teeth again, so much so that it makes Buck’s teeth hurt in turn.

“Gott strafe England!” another voice rings out from the same trench, but further down the left, in a very bad German accent that you can tell even if you don’t know any German.

“Somehow I have a feeling God doesn’t want to have to do with any of that, dude,” Buck snorts, amused.

“They’re seriously still playing at it and incorporates us as the Brits?” Eddie gapes.

Buck grimaces. “Well, I guess it’s a big no-no with the history enthusiasts to break character.”

Eddie shakes his head. “There’s other things that are broken.”

“Can’t say you’re wrong there,” Buck sighs. “So. Which one do you want?”

“None?” Eddie huffs.

Buck rolls his eyes. He exhales deeply, then turns to face Eddie. “Rock, paper, scissors? Loser takes on the guy who wants to punish us for being British?”

Eddie makes a noise deep in his throat, but then holds up his fist to play. Buck grins. For some reason, Eddie always picks scissors as a last resort, be it one out of three or one on one. So it could be an easy win, but Buck is feeling generous tonight, which is why he goes with paper. And Eddie does not disappoint by picking scissors.

Of course.

“You got me there, Eds,” Buck laughs, adjusting his gear. “Maybe try to work into conversation that you represent both Mexico and Sweden, see if that throws him off.”

Eddie rolls his eyes.

“I just hope the guy didn’t burn his clothes,” Buck continues, furrowing his eyebrows. “That really would be punishment enough.”

“Move with caution. The guy might well be confused and hurt. Let me know if you are in immediate danger,” Eddie tells him with a tight grimace.

“Copy that,” Buck agrees, clapping Eddie on the shoulder. “Just don’t murder your brave little soldier over there.”

“I make no guarantees. Because we will have to haul those pendejosall the way back as it’s not safe for helicopters to land here after their little show.”

“Eddie, consider all the paperwork I’d have to do if you murdered someone. You can’t do that to me. While I would totally drive the van for when you rob a bank, I think I must draw the line at murder,” Buck tells him.

Eddie furrows his eyebrows. “Why would I rob a bank?”

Buck shrugs. “Things happen. People need to bail someone out. Or buy a yacht. Economy is a myth. Money is a false god…”

His partner shakes his head, amused. “Let’s just get going.”

“Copy that.” Buck makes a mock salute that earns him a lethal glare from Eddie.

“Be safe, partner,” Eddie says softly.

“You, too, partner. Don’t let the Germans get ya.”

After that, Buck jogs off to the left, not at all looking forward to what he fears will be a guy who’d look into the front end of a cannon just to check if all is good, with the fuse burning like in the comics. At the very least, he has hopes that Eddie won’t be as homicidal with the other guy.

Buck just can’t wait to get out of this place, and make sure not to watch any documentaries on world wars for the next couple of weeks. Maybe months. As he walks off, Buck ponders whether he should come up with some excuse to stay over at Eddie’s, to keep true to his promise and make sure he is alright after tonight’s job.

After all, they have each other’s backs, on the job and outside it. And Eddie is always an easier patient when he feels like he is helping instead of letting others help him. So it probably won’t take Buck much to get Eddie to let him stay over. And then they can just have a beer and talk and curse away and all will be good in the morning.

“Gott strafe England! Gott strafe England!“

“We heard you the first time, damn it!”

…

Eddie continues down the side of the trench to spot the victims. Like that, they don’t have to haul themselves through the mud like those idiots, pardon, history enthusiasts.

“Alright, found ya!” Eddie calls out. “Sir? I am Firefighter Diaz. We’re here to help.”

“I still can’t believe the others took the Minenwerfer! Clearly, that belonged to ourgroup!” the man keeps on ranting, pacing up and down the length of the trench. “What would the British do with the Minenwerfer?!”

It takes Eddie about all of his self-control not to roll his eyes and just walk away again.

“You’ve got to be joking,” he mutters under his breath instead.

“It is part of history. And the weaponry, for its time, was an outstanding…,” the man wants to lecture him, but Eddie beats him to it, “How about we leave the history lessons for until we’re out of the danger zone, yes? I need to check you over. And then we should get you out of here before the British invasion actually happens.”

Or the Mexican. Or the Swedish. Whichever comes first.

One swift jump down and Eddie is eye-to-eye with the guy, who still seems much more preoccupied with his arsenal than his own apparent rescue from burning trenches and buildings, remember.

“Okay, how about you stand still for a moment so I can see where you’re hurt?” Eddie asks. The man studies him for a longer moment, then thankfully thinks better of it than to disobey.

“As you seem to know a lot about the weapons, do you know if there is still more that need taking care of,” Eddie asks, checking the pulse.

“Naturally. I was the one who brought them, even though people decided it was fair to just go ahead without us and switch things up. Because that is not at all historically accurate – and they should know better than that!”

“Yeah, very unfair of them surely, Sir. Coz war’s always fair,” Eddie mumbles, counting silently to five before starting to move again. He goes through the motions to check the man over, finding little to no injuries. Safe for some burns from where he’d seemingly held on to some small explosive for too long, some cuts and bruises, and some sprains, the dude seems fine.

Physically, at least. Let’s not make any assumptions about the mental state.

“Okay, seems like you just got bummed up a bit,” Eddie concludes. “So I think it’s time we get your friend and then head back to the others.”

“Oh, I’m dying to have a word with them!”

“Careful what you wish for,” Eddie mutters under his breath. He climbs back out and leans down to give the man a hand. Hauling him up, Eddie can’t deny the bit of satisfaction at hearing the man shriek like a small kid that just saw a spider.

“It’s going to be okay, Sir. Just breathe through it. It’s all part of the experience,” Eddie says as he helps the man stand.

“Dave and the others will pay for this. I went through so much effort to get my hands on all the props here, to make it authentic. And then they just break character and leave to try out the Minenwerfer! Without me!”

“What else did you get?” Eddie asks, his muscles tightening. Last he heard from the rest of the history enthusiasts, they just had that stupid mine launcher from some even stupider fan shop or whatever, plus some historically authenticflamethrowers of the period.

Because that was going to go over well.

“A Vickers.303 inch Class C medium machine gun. Absolute beauty. And in immaculate condition. I polished it myself. Though I couldn’t get the right projectiles for it, so it was really just to set the stage. But it looked fantastic. A bunch of Lewis.303 inch machine guns. 3-inch Stokesmortar, which was really tough to get. Some BergmannMG 15 andMG 15 NA. Mauser Karabiner98A… some trench clubs for the raids that we also wanted to reenact. And a bunch of M1917 Stielhandgranaten.”

Eddie wrinkles his nose. “Gesundheit.”

“The rifles all had just fake ammunition. We just wanted the atmosphere to be more intense with the actual mortars and grenades and such,” the man laments.

“Yeah, very authentic, that. In the war zone, you always only pick the weapons you want to blow up for the aesthetic.”

Eddie knows he should just hold his tongue and get going, but this whole situation just rubs him in the wrong way. Or all the wrong ways, to be precise. He’d much rather call it a day, read his son a bedtime story, and then have a couple of beer with Buck. And if he gets really lucky, Buck would stay over and make some decent breakfast. There are so many things he’d rather do than listen to any of this crap. But it’s what they signed up for.

“It is part of our history…,” the man argues, but Eddie waves him off. “Yeah right, I think it’s time we check in with my partner and your friend before heading back. You will need some many band-aids for the historical experience. Though I’m not sure they had band-aids, or proper pain meds…”

Eddie is just about to call out to Buck when he hears a shout and then there is just a loud bang and heat nearly knocking them both off their feet.

“Buck!” he screams, struggling for balance as he watches sparks and smoke go up in the night sky from the trench. In the direction to where Buck was headed.

“BUCK!”

Eddie is running, his heart hammering in his chest, nearly taking off his rib cage.

Nonononono.

“EDDIE!”

Relief washes over him in waves of heat and sparks of fire flitting across the sky like fireflies. Buck is alive. He can hear him. He is alive. He didn’t just go up in flames.

He is alive. Alive. Alive. Alive...

Though the relief is soon replaced with the sickening realization that there is nothing but desperation in his partner’s voice.

“STAY WHERE YOU ARE!”

“What’s going on?” Eddie shouts.

“I’m on top of a bunch of stick grenades that have not exploded – yet!” Buck shrieks back at the top of his lungs.

Eddie’s eyes open wide as he stops dead in his tracks.

“Confused civilian still in the danger zone! We need the EOD here! Now!” Buck continues.

Eddie’s mind goes blank as he grabs his radio to report back to Bobby to explain it all. Because just like that, this is no longer pretending at war.

He is right back in it.

And so is Buck.

[metalbuckaroo]

I’m feeling veeerrrry sappy tonight, so excuse me while I give a lil backstory on the birth of “Metalbuckaroo”, express my absolute love for everyone who has even read on fic of mine, and for my blog-

In the months September of 2020 to around March of 2021, I was having terrible anxiety. I’ve always had anxiety, since I was ab 12-13. But, this anxiety was soooo fucking different.

I couldn’t drive, couldn’t be left alone bc then I would start getting too deep in my own thoughts and end up in a panic attack on my kitchen floor. I couldn’t even be in a car for too long bc it would send me into a spiral.

It got to the point where I couldn’t listen to most music, couldn’t watch hardly any tv, bc it would all trigger something in me and I’d end up having panic attacks.

Those months were so fucking hard. I just wanted to feel halfway normal and live my life again.

One of the things that got me through those months was the dvd set of the MCU I’d gotten off of EBay for less than 30 dollars.

I never got to watch things like Marvel, DC, Walking Dead, or anything like that bc my mom sheltered us older kids. Home school, supervised television, all that stuff.

So, when I became an adult, I didn’t really think ab watching any of it.

But, I can say with every bit of confidence I have, I have never felt the way ab any movie/tv show/book the way I do ab MCU. I played every movie in the set on repeat, all day, everyday. I had sooo much trouble sleeping bc of my anxiety that I would sit and watch The Winter Soldier until 4 and 5 o’clock in the morning if not later.

Eventually, I started reading Bucky fics on tumblr, really loved the atmosphere that I saw others create on their blogs. So, after watching Destroyer one night, Sweet Pea happened. The series that was meant to be three parts at most.

I’ve tried the whole “posting on tumblr” and at one point I even posted on Wattpad. But, never really kept the fics up, nor did they get much traction.

Metalbuckaroo has been an opportunity that I never imagined. I’ve talked with so many wonderful people who I can’t even express how grateful I am for. People who are the reason I decided to start posting fics are now some that I couldn’t imagine if i didn’t have the opportunity to get to know (even if I’ve been terrible at keeping a conversation recently)

Overall, I’m so grateful for all 7100 of you. This blog will always have a special place in my heart no matter what happens to it.

[codylabs]

Metroid Dread

I'm seeing a lot of people mad that Samus appears to be back to working with the Federation in the new game, despite having blown up a shady government-funded bioweapon research station in the last game, which seems like it logically should have made her Public Enemy Number One.

But I find it actually sort of touching? Like, yeah, she doubtlessly messed with the plans of some pretty big wigs, she probably made a lot of people mad, a big PR fiasco, but then it all just... Blew over?

This is a woman with a flawless track record of saving the Galaxy from threats that nobody else knew existed at the time. She's saved civilizations, saved mankind, in Prime 2 we read in trooper logs that she's something of a mythic Santa-Claus-like figure in the outskirts of human space, she's done countless heroic feats, most of them she's done thanklessly, and most of them, for free.

She's shown the galaxy nothing over the years except silent, stoic goodwill, and I suppose the implication here is that somewhere along the line, that goodwill was repaid. Maybe there was a trial of some kind. Maybe they couldn't decide whether to try her as a soldier or a civilian or a terrorist, since she isn't even a Federation citizen, and her status as the last remnant of the Chozo makes her legally count as a sovereign nation of one. Maybe there were protests outside the courthouse, people from remote mining colonies she singlehandedly saved from pirate raids, flying in from across the galaxy to throw in their two cents. Maybe former squadmates from her time in the service show up to give her glowing character commendations, climaxing in none other than GOSH DARN FLEET ADMIRAL CASTOR DANE THE MAN HIMSELF bursting through the doors of the courtroom in full navy dress, then proceeding to put is foot up on a chair and jaw on for hours about all her sacrifices and brave deeds in the Phazon War. Maybe elsewhere, high up the military ladder, there were some top-secret weapons projects suddenly subject to some very thorough internal review. Maybe A.I. Adam sent them helmet-cam footage he'd been taking through the whole incident, so that it's clear to anyone watching why Samus made the decisions she did. Maybe it's clear that she was right.

Samus wasn't around for this trial, mind you; they couldn't even find her. She was off somewhere in the far reaches of the cold vacuum of space, eating a reheated space-burrito in 0g inside her tiny ship, browsing space-Ebay to see how much money she could get for a used missile launcher, when suddenly Adam chimes in to tell her he intercepted a transmission from the inner worlds: she'd been cleared of all charges, and they even had a new job for her. Something a little lower-profile this time maybe; a warlord or a xenomorph outbreak or something. But she pauses for a moment in confusion and relief, as it dawns on her that for once, the whole galaxy isn't out to get her. Somewhere, somehow, she isn't quite alone.

And then that's more or less the end of it.

Years pass, the jobs come and go, and now here we are in the Metroid Dread part of the timeline. Her suit's partially repaired from the damage sustained in Fusion; Federation engineers managed to recreate something like Chozo armor composite in small quantities, and have been bolting it on a bit at a time, over several appointments. They can't always get the color right; sometimes it's blue, sometimes it's white; paint doesn't seem to stick to the hyper-magnetic nanotubes, so she might not ever wear orange again. But as she leaves the station wearing her new look, the guard gives her a little salute. She salutes back.

Things are about back to normal.

The Federation still has its champion.

The galaxy still has its hero.

[brightbeautifulthings]

Hello, lovelies! Tell Me Something Tuesday is a meme created by Rainy Day Ramblings and currently hosted by Because Reading Is Better Than Real Life, That's What I'm Talking About, For What It's Worth, Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell and Offbeat YA. It provides weekly discussion prompts on various book and blogging topics with optional participation. You can sign up for prompts here.

This week’s prompt is: Do you read graphic novels? Why or why not?

I'm excited about this question because I've only recently started getting into graphic novels. If you've followed my blog for any length of time, you probably know how much I love superhero movies and shows (particularly the MCU and Arrowverse), but I've always been too intimidated to venture far into their source material. It's overwhelming and confusing with all the different timelines, universes, and character adaptations, so it can be difficult to know where to start or what to read if you're interested in a specific character. For this reason, I'll probably never be an avid comic collector. I don't like the single issues very much, since they're hard and expensive to track down in the right order, and I tend to favor more complete stories. Here’s my advice if you’re interested in diving in!

Collections: I absolutely love graphic novel collections, which offer more complete character arcs and storylines. For example, one of my favorite books so far this year is Captain America: Winter Soldier, Ultimate Collection by Ed Brubaker. There are plenty of things to love about this collection (the art, the way Brubaker writes Steve), but what I really love is that it's this (mostly) complete story between two of my favorite characters. Like everything, collections can be hit and miss, given that they're often written/illustrated by different people throughout the series, but overall, I find them a lot easier to manage than individual issues.

Research: The other half of this newfound love is research. If I'm interested in a specific character, like Oliver Queen, my first step is to search for lists of the best Green Arrow comics. I'll comb through a couple of those and pick out some titles that sound interesting to me, and Goodreads is a big help in figuring out where those series start and end. Then, it's a matter of narrowing it down to the ones I can find for a reasonable price (often on Ebay), since my Kindle doesn't have color--not ideal for graphic novels--and I prefer hard copies whenever possible anyway. Of course, things like Marvel and DC Unlimited can simplify this whole process for people who read a lot of comics, but then I couldn't admire them on my shelf.

Follow Your Heart: My last bit of advice is not to worry too much about starting at the beginning, assuming you can even find it, and go with what you’re interested in! Most collections will give you the background you need to understand what's going on, and you might not enjoy a previous writer's interpretation as much as whatever's caught your eye. I wasted a lot of time dragging my feet on reading the original Runaways series because I wanted to read Rainbow Rowell's new take on the characters, and it turns out there was no need. Rowell is a competent enough storyteller to fill me in what I need to know, and I was in love with her series within the first ten pages.

This new system is working so well for me, I had to move my graphic novel collection to its own shelf because it was getting out of hand. But now there’s room to expand, and they feel right at home with the shield and Team Cap. 🦾 

[small-stitchery]

Willa the Wellie Wisher goes time-travelling!

Well, I was trawling through my photos tonight, and realised - I fibbed without knowing it. I HAVE actually made things for an American Girl doll before!

Back when my mother was selling off her collection, she got a Wellie Wisher included in a job lot of AG stuff, and she was a GREAT size for some of my A Girl for All Time outfits that made up just a little too short or too small. 

It was obviously Christmas time around then, because Willa is clearly channelling Clara from the Nutcracker Ballet just a little here...

(the little Nutcrackers were old Christmas ornaments I found in a sale , and the perfect size! I just snipped the hanging thread off, and voila! Toy soldiers!)

Edwardian Version Willa:

A very “Samantha Parkington’s little sister” look here! The little sheer Edwardian blouse was separate to the pinafore dress, and was made out of scraps from my Girl for All Time Matilda 1830s dress...

 I did some pink embroidery up the front in two different shades of pink with a sort of fern stitch look on the pinafore, and used some cheap pink upholstery braid to trim the neckline and front. The buttons are those tiny doll buttons you can get in craft shops.

I made the hair ribbon to match and tacked it lightly to a bobby pin. The tights and shoes I think I bought? I don’t remember now...

Regency Version Willa!

I was really pleased with this one, because it involved a bit of thrifty stitching on my part! the pink /black print was from a baby dress I found in a charity shop for about 50p - I washed it and cut it up - and whilst the dress was a little tight for my A Girl for All Time gals,  it was perfect for Willa! 

The pink silk bodice was a dupioni silk remnant from a cheap set I’d bought on Ebay. I trimmed it up with a little bit of pink rococo braid and some cheap draft-shop lace.  Willa looks like a little Regency frosted cupcake!

I only wish I’d something more with her hair. She looks a bit dishevelled!

Eventually my mother rehomed her somewhere by selling her on with her modern clothes and her period-drama wardrobe thrown in as a bonus. Half wishing we’d kept her, as I’ve seen some wonderful doll-owners pose her as Felicity’s little sister from the books, but... I don’t have a Felicity - and she’s hopefully gone to a better home!

[darkarfs]

single moments from the Trump presidency that would have defined/ended any other politician’s career

- saying he could “buy Greenland” - suggesting it was a good idea to nuke hurricanes - saying there would be fewer forest fires if we just got rid of all the leaves - asking Trudeau if Canada had tried to burn down the White House - autographing pictures of shooting victims - when he kept talking about how they drop bowling balls on cars to test them in japan and no one could figure out where he could have even gotten the idea - when he suggested Seoul should just move away from the North Korean border - introducing West Virginia’s governor as ‘the largest, most beautiful man’ - when he tweeted SEE YOU IN COURT! right after an appeals court ruled against him. like. yeah man. they just did. - the time he didn't know how to close an umbrella so he just dropped it and walked away - fighting with the Vietnam vets over whether napalm or agent orange is used in the Ride of the Valkyries scene in Apocalypse Now and then when they insisted it was napalm, Trump said they disagreed with him because they didn't like the movie (The line is famously, literally “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.”) - using his position as the single most powerful person in the world to promote Goya canned beans - when he bragged about the crowd size at the hurricane shelter in coastal Texas (”what a turnout”) - signing Bibles. What. - thinking the F-22 is invisible to the naked eye - smiling and giving a thumbs up during a photo op with a baby orphaned by a mass shooting - putting a candy bar on a Minion’s head because he’s never interacted with a child before -  when he interpreted some stray comment about transparency in the process to mean his border wall should literally be transparent, so passersby are not beaned by bundles of drugs and cans being thrown over the wall - the time he talked about having to flush his massive dumps 10 times and then immediately tried to blame the dumps on his supporters - the fake Sharpee’d hurricane map, which he did solely to not appear wrong on television - suggesting that federal employees working unpaid during the gov shutdown should just “do a work around” at the grocery store if they can’t pay for groceries - the fucking eclipse thing - the fucking three-pointers with paper towels to Puerto Rican hurricane victims - when he told thousands of Boy Scouts a story about his rich friend's fuckboat and then complained about Hilary for the remainder of the speech - when the called the CEO of Lockheed Martin “Marilyn Lockheed” (her last name is Hewson) which was objectively funnier than “Tim Apple” - when he picked an argument with Baltic world leaders because he thought the Baltics were the Balkans - the first time his team had a meeting in the cabinet room they couldn’t figure out how to turn on the lights and ended up just having the meeting in the dark -  The time he said Andrew Jackson was "really angry that he saw what was happening with regard to the Civil War, he said 'There's no reason for this.'" (Jackson died 16 years before the Civil War, and he owned 150 slaves.) - told a 7-year-old boy there was no Santa Claus on Christmas - the team of staffers whose only job was to tape back together documents he had torn up because he’s just THAT used to destroying evidence, because they couldn’t get him to stop ripping them up, but legally, the documents had to be archived - when he said the Continental Army took over the British airports during the Revolution - no sanctions on Russian soldiers killing American soldiers - “I take no responsibility for this pandemic.” - when touring the damage the Louisiana gulf coast after Hurricane Laura (just a few months ago!), he started giving first responders autographed pieces of paper, which he told them to sell on eBay for $10,000 - when he thought "clean coal" meant that the miners dug it out of the ground and physically cleaned it - the goddamn fast food catering - trying to trick the family of a teen killed by a US diplomat's wife who fled justice into meeting her, Ellen-style - pushing the Prime Minister of Montenegro out of the way to preen - that time he called into Fox & Friends and ranted for so long that they politely but firmly kicked him off - hiring an Obama impersonator solely to berate him - having a button installed on his desk that let him order Diet Coke on a whim. And sometimes using that button upwards of 13 times a day. - that time when a kid handed him a hat to sign, and he signed the hat, but instead of handing it back, he just threw it into the middle of the crowd - autographing the guestbook at the Holocaust memorial, with an added “had such a great time!” - when he zoned out and wondered where a woman's dead relatives were DIRECTLY after she had said her mother six brothers were killed. (Actual exchange: “They killed my mother, my six brothers...” “Where are they now?”) - sending 2,000 soldiers to the border to stop “the caravan,” having their pictures taken, and then recalling them all. - consoling a dead soldier’s family by saying “he knew what he was getting into.” - when he said no one could climb over the border wall because there would be no way down, and then belatedly remembered rope - when he congratulated the Great Lakes on their "record deepness" - calling Elizabeth Warren “Pocahontas” at an event meant to honor Navajo code talkers  - “Shithole countries” - calling Baltimore “rat-infested” - tweeting “too bad!” right after Elijah Cummings’ house was broken into - calling the White House “a dump” a month into moving in, which led to first both him and Melania, and then just Melania by herself, staying in Trump Tower for almost 5 months, costing taxpayers around $100,000 a day - an entire quarter of his presidency spent on his own golf courses, costing taxpayers around $141,000,000, NOT counting the Secret Service detail (they were charged for rooms and golf carts, since these were Trump’s OWN golf courses) - using “Pocahontas” again to slur Elizabeth Warren while talking down to a Native American journalist - holding a rally in Pittsburgh and trying to woo the locals by ranting about how the statue of Joe Paterno, the accused pedophilia enabler who was coach of a rival sports team, should go back up - confusingly having bigger salt and pepper shakers than everyone else in his administration, because everything to him is a dick-measuring contest - when he said he would “run in and take care of” school shooters, to school shooting victims - appointing fucking DeVos, Miller, Pompeo, Mnuchin, Nunes - inciting a seditious white supremacist mob to make sure he’s president until he’s 85, resulting in 5 dead (for which I am constantly wondering...”really? FOR THIS GUY?”) - drafted a proposal to open 94% of previously protected American shorelines to offshore drilling - when he walked up the stairs to Air Force One with toilet paper stuck to his shoe -  at least 44 times in March, April and early May in which he downplayed the threat of the virus calling it “very well under control” again and again - when somebody asked him his favorite book and he pointed at a bookshelf and said “there are some over there” - meeting with the goddamn MyPillow guy to discuss overturning election results and declaring martial law - impeached twice, was golfing both times the vote went through - 70 pardons for known criminals (including Bannon), 70 sentences commuted, just to be a spiteful little toad - when he blathered on about how much he loved the queen, the totally hacked her off - when Hope Hicks steamed his pants as he was wearing them - getting mad-pissed at White House kitchen staff because they couldn’t recreate McDonald’s and it was too late to order  and I wonder how much I missed. I bet there’s a McSweeney’s article listing all of it.

[my-darling-boy]

Where did you get your WWI kit?

Mine’s a youth SD tunic/trousers and youth webbing from Soldier of Fortune I think (the only site to sell a youth size cos you could fit two of me in an actual standard size uniform) with just their usual trench cap. Everything else I don’t remember where I bought them from or I got things through Ebay.

Some personal thing over the past 1.5 years kind of halted my work on my impression though! I’m in the process now of scraping together money on the side to go to a professional reenactment uniform maker to fashion a bantam size SD trousers, tunic, and cap. I’m also sewing my own grey flannel and making my own ID bracelet as well as dying my webbing to get rid of the yellow colour to recreate the Blanco.

It’s going to be Pricey, but I plan on truly pursuing Living History work, so it’s needed! So in the meantime while I can’t participate in events cos of how dangerous it is outside still, I’m busy giving my kit a Remodel

[chernobog13]

MOONLIGHT SY-3

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

We’ve all been asked that question at some point in our lives.  As a kid I had three answers: Superman, captain of the USS Enterprise, or captain of the Moonlight SY-3.

Now, even as a little tyke I knew there was no way I could become Superman because I wasn’t from Krypton, and my parents had the birth certificate to prove it.

Moonlight SY-3 blasting through space!

And I knew, barring a Buck Rogers-like experience where I slept for centuries and woke up in the 23rd Century, there was no way I was going to make it on the Enterprise.

Moonlight SY-3 in flight over the moon.

But the Moonlight SY-3 was supposed to be in operation by 1999, only a few decades down the road at that time, and if I studied hard I could become the captain.  What other job offered the opportunity of regular flights back-and-forth to the moon, fighting kaiju, battling UFOs, and thwarting the plots of nefarious aliens?

No, captain of the SY-3 was realistically the only career choice I could possibly pursue.

My parents and teachers didn’t agree.

Introduced in the 1968 magnum opus Destroy All Monsters,  was an all-purpose rocketship operated under the auspices of the United Nations Science Committee, which also had a base on the Moon and operated Monster Island.

The SY-3 was capable of atmospheric as well as space flight.  It was 124 meters long, and could separate into two parts: the frontal rocket, which was the main operational unit at 46 meters long: and the large rear rocket at 77 meters long, which was essentially a booster engine used for space flight or if extreme speeds were necessary.

Atmospheric flight was aided by two sets of delta wings that folded into the ship’s sides when flying in space.

The SY-3 had 4 missile launchers and carried a variety of missiles.  According to records the ship was fitted with two maser emitters, but those were never seen utilized.

Cut-away diagram of the Moonlight SY-3 that was part of a Destroy All Monsters sonorama booklet.

The SY-3 was also outfitted with a 5-man Exploration Car, which is also armed with maser emitters.  The Exploration Car is equipped to operate on the lunar surface.

The SY-3′s Exploration Car in action.

The crew, led by Captain Katsuo Yamabe, are astronaut soldiers, highly intelligent and adaptable, and trained to handle any situation.  They are armed with a variety of firearms in case they encounter any hostile entities.

Captain Katsuo Yamabe of the Moonlight SY-3.

The Moonlight SY-3 crew in the cockpit.

Moonlight SY-3 took off and landed in the vertical position.  There were a set of retractable landing caterpillar treads that allowed the ship to move its position if necessary while on the ground.

Another cutaway of the SY-3, this time via Stan Hyde.

The SY-3 with the delta wings retracted for space flight.

The SY-3 was instrumental in defeating the attack on Earth  by the alien Kilaaks.  The ship destroyed a Kilaak iron ship that had been disguised as a fiery “Fire Dragon,” which was responsible for the destruction of the UNSC’s control center on Monster Island.

Yet another cutaway of the Moonlight SY-3, because you just can’t have enough of these things.

Sadly, in the real world, the United Nations never got around to building a moon base, establishing Monster Island, or building the Moonlight SY-3.  So by the time I was all grossed up there was no chance of me being hired to pilot it.

Given how big a role the Moonlight Sy-3 played in Destroy All Monsters I would’ve expected more merchandise based on it.  The SY-3 is at least as iconic as the Gotengo from Atragon.  However, a search revealed  paucity of items available.

Japanese model kit of the Moonlight SY-3.

Of course, there are a few different model and garage kits available in different sizes.  And there is an extremely rare Marmit 11-inch tall version which I believe is soft vinyl (sofubi).  

There was a die cast SY-3 made almost 20 years ago, but it was only 3 1/2 inches long and it’s long out of production.

Even this guy above, which I luckily picked up in the vendors’ room at G-Fest a few years ago, is only 4 1/2 inches long (though the wings retract, which is a nice feature).

I was hoping Bandai or Kaiyodo Revoltech, both of whom make some very fine mecha toys ( I love Kaiyodo Revoltech’s Mighty Jack!), would try their hands at the SY-3, but apparently either Toho said “no” (hard to believe) or no one’s approached them yet.

Even during the two trips I took to Japan, when I scoured every single toy store (new and used) that I could find, I was only able to find model kits.

Models are fine for those who are good at building them.  But as I have mentioned a time or two on this blog, I have no feeling in my fingertips.  That makes fine work like modeling extremely difficult for me.

Not that I haven’t tried, mind you.  But I’ve lost count how many times I’ve glued model pieces to my fingers, or worse yet glued my fingers together, without realizing it.  Frustrating is too mild a word.

So I guess I’ll just keep haunting eBay and Mandarake in hopes of finding an SY-3 toy to replace the crushed dreams of my childhood.

And in the meantime try to figure out what I really want to be when I grow up.

[epochxp]

Board Games about the Battle of Budapest, 1945

Hungarian troops man German-made PaK-40 Anti-Tank Gun on the Approaches to Budapest, Winter 1944 | Wikipedia

Until recently, the Battle of Budapest was little known in the West, mainly due to a lack of reliable historical sources available. Since the end of the Cold War, however, this has changed, especially with the release of the book The Siege of Budapest, 100 Days in World War II, by Krisztián Ungváry. The author has read it and if you have any sort of interest in this battle, this is the book to read first.

Since the sources have improved and more sources become available, we’ve seen a much clearer picture of the 100-day fight for the city and the four separate attempts by the Germans to relieve the city. All of this conspired to make a true hell on earth that some historians have said is worse than Stalingrad. In the end, 80,000 Soviets soldiers, as well as 38,000 German and Hungarian soldiers and another 38,000 Hungarian civilians lost their lives. It was truly a vicious fight to the last and definitely one worthy of being the subject of some boardgames.

So, what’s out there for the discerning wargamer?

Board Game Geek

Like most of the games about fighting, this game is centered around the attempts to relieve Budapest through the various German offensives (Konrads I-III and Spring Awakening), all of which failed. By the end of January 1945, no more efforts were made to relieve the city, with it finally falling to the Russians on the 14th of February after an abortive breakout attempt.

I own the game, but haven’t had a chance to play it. I will say, graphically, it looks very good, with well laid-out counters, maps, and play aids. This was, admittedly, a “grail game” of mine, and I was glad I finally got a copy. I have read the rules and some of them are a bit confusing, but I was told some house rules can polish this rough gem of an experience. The situation is a desperate one on both sides, as both sides are playing “beat the clock” from the outset, with the Russians trying to take Budapest before the end of the game and the Germans trying to relieve Budapest before the Russians take the city or the game ends. 

While the game is out of print, it’s available on Board Game Geek, but it’s a bit pricy. I am happy to say that there is a VASSAL module for the game, so online play is an option. I’d definitely recommend Bitter End, even with its minor issues. 

Board Game Geek

I have not failed to like a single game from Against the Odds, and this is no exception. One of the few operational games about the battle for the city, the game itself is a visual feast and I was very impressed with it. The map itself is based on a 1943 map of the city and it just exudes period feel. As for the game itself, it’s a slog, no question about this, and there’s not much in the way of tension, but it does demonstrate what a nightmare urban combat truly is. But it’s a mental endurance exercise to play. Quick, this game is not. I still recommend it, but expect to be in this game for the long haul. 

The good news is that the game is more than available from ATO as a back issue, and between the game and the well-researched articles about the battle itself, I’d say it’s well worth the purchase price.

Board Game Geek

Part of the excellent Gamer’s/MMP Operational Combat Series (OCS), Hungarian Rhapsody is one of the first wargames about the entire campaign written by a Hungarian designer. I would say this is very important as well. They can certainly access sources most of the English-speaking community cannot. He also met with Mr. Ungváry about the game, especially the Budapest portions. The game went through a nine-year development process, five of those being playtests. It’s a testament to how much work that went into this game. It’s a game that covers the entire Hungarian campaign from the Summer of 1944 to the beginning of 1945, and it’s a game I’d certainly love to get my hand on.  The scope of the game is impressive, as taken from the designer’s website:

The Battle of Debrecen, one map, 7 Turns

Grand Campaign, two maps, 43 Turns

The Battle of Debrecen, two maps, 7 Turns

From Debrecen to Budapest, two maps, 25 Turns

Operation Budapest, two map scenario, 17.5 Turns

Operation Budapest, two map Campaign Start, 34.5 Turns

Race to Budapest, two map large scenario, 7 Turns

Race to Budapest, 1.5 map small scenario, 7 Turns

Race to Budapest, two map Campaign Start, 25 Turns

Konrad I-II, one map, 3 Turns

Konrad I-II-III, one map, 13 Turns

Konrad I, two map Campaign Start, 17 Turns

Konrad III, one map, 4 Turns

Konrad III, two map Campaign Start, 12 Turns

Südwind, one map, 3 Turns

It’s a hefty pricetag at $140, but it is well worth the effort and time that was put into this project, but it can be found cheaper through Board Game Geek and ebay. There is also a VASSAL module that facilitates online play. All in all, this was a gargantuan effort that I hope I get a chance to play soon.

In an unrelated note, I wish to inform you all this will be my final article for the Epoch Xperience blog. I’m not leaving Epoch XP, but being asked to take over another large project you’ll be hearing about very soon. I am certainly very excited about it and hope you will be too once I get a chance to reveal what it is. Be patient, I promise it will be worth the wait. It’s been a pleasure to share my thoughts about wargaming and to hear your responses to my work on social media. 

I hope the discussion continues, and, as always, Good Gaming, Everyone.

At Epoch XP, we specialize in creating compelling narratives and provide research to give your game the kind of details that engage your players and create a resonant world they want to spend time in. If you are interested in learning more about our gaming research services, you can browse Epoch XP's service on our parent site, SJR Research.

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(This article is credited to Jason Weiser. Jason is a long-time wargamer with published works in the Journal of the Society of Twentieth Century Wargamers; Miniature Wargames Magazine; and Wargames, Strategy, and Soldier.)