Been away for 2 weeks.

Waiting in the sun for SLAYER

I have returned back to Darwin after 2 weeks in Melbourne. It was HUGE fun. The reason was to see the Soundwave music festival headlined by Metallica. I first saw them live on the "Damaged Justice world Tour" in NZ many years ago. The nights prior to Soundwave had lots of side shows on and I managed to catch some which included 'The Sword' and a Scott Ian spoken word show. Scott Ian is from 'Anthrax' and I got to see their own show as well and again at Soundwave the next day. The sold out show at the small basement venue was an absolute highlight with me at the front barrier grinning from ear to ear and sonically pummeled at the end of the night with shirt soaking with sweat from headbanging and horns in the air.

OK. So me talking about what music I dig is not wargaming but I did manage to get some wargames shopping in and that was interesting. Perhaps I take for granted the 10% discount I get at Comics NT my local wargame supply shop but it was confronting seeing the full retail prices at Mind games on Swanston Street and also even higher at a Good Games store. X-wing blisters at Good Games while they had no price tags when asked I was a little shocked by the response .........dearer than Mind Games.

Game store weirdness.
OK those that know us but don't play our games may think our hobby is a little odd sometimes but it is not helped by game store strangeness. Mind Games in Melb is on two floors. Downstairs, board games. Upstairs, wargames (blisters of figures etc), no problems. It was cool to actually see first hand a lot of stock that I rarely get to see here but, put some background music on please as the silence on the second floor was a little freaky. It was also bizarre when paying for my purchase every price sticker was taken off and placed on some sort of daily tally sheet. Also I encountered a dude who worked there who firmly believes that only good food can exist in Melbourne. Don't ask me how eating out came up but the dude is totally mistaken.
Good Games turned out to be a big room filled with tables for those Card Game playing fanatics (Magic I assume). But what products they had lacked price labels. It's not that expensive to buy a price tag machine is it? It was also really odd to take the lift to the first floor and then walk through a Travel Agency to Good Games as well.
We had some time so we headed out to Milsims games out in a suburb. This shop is not in the kooky gamers shop category. A much more professional set up. I was curious as I have purchased gear from them via the Internets so thought it would be worth a looksee. It was the most professional of the game shops I visited but the floor had stacks of games with orders stuck to them and being in the process of getting boxed for posting to eager gamers. I got two Star Wars blister (Dice and yet another Tie fighter) and it was interesting how we discussed how popular the game is. They had a few blisters when I was there but they suspected that they would be cleaned out by the end of the day. It seems to be literally flying off the shelves so much so that a while back they took a picture of some remaining stock and posted it on Facebook. It was seen by the American distributors and they asked if they could send it back! I could have spent a lot longer at Milsims flicking through books and so on. I think I really need a list in the future of stuff I think I need rather than just having a look. It can be overwhelming.

By accident I stumbled across a Games Workshop store in the city. I had a good look at the Glass Cabinets which was cool to see nicely painted miniatures. But it was the usual slick corporate operation that is cloned throughout the globe no doubt. In the background audio was Ozzy Ozbourne on a Crazy Train...cool.
The sadist in me couldn't help but have a crack about how I used to play Warhammer but now that the plastic is laced with gold I have not purchased nor played GW products for a long time. A friend suggested I should have asked them if they sold Flames of War.

Anyway it was a good time and I did a lot of walking and feel physically better for it. I have a desk job so I need to get more exercise. The size of the place made me appreciate the convenience of living in a smaller place where everything is easy to get to.

Cheers from Brendon (The Kiwi)