Loot Crate June 2016 "Dystopia" Unboxing, plus this month's Pop in a Box.

Loot Crate actually arrived fairly early this month (although I started this post and forgot about it, so I'm posting late), so here it is!

It's the first time I've documented a blind Loot Crate unboxing, I've usually opened it with the wife and then gone back to it later to talk about the contents. Get it in your eyes and ears boys and girls.

Not a bad box really, I still can't get over that T-Shirt, I love it. Made myself promise to wait until I go on Holiday in September before I wear it, but after that I'm living in it. Providing it doesn't immediately shrink like the Bill and Ted shirt did.

Here's the T2 print thing on my newly christened Terminator shelf, with the VHS box set I mentioned in the video, and the rubber Genisys skull from a previous Crate:

And here's the Fallout Dorbz, along with the other two that my wife received from Pop in a Box this month purely by coincidence, in our miniature living room Fallout shrine. I'm waiting to see what comes from Pop in a Box this month, and if it's not the other two Fallout guys (the male Vault Dweller and a Super Mutant), I'm just gonna buy them.

~TiD

ZBox Unboxing: Two Mystery Welcome Boxes

So when I signed up with ZBox, Zavvi's Loot Crate contender, there were a couple of deals on for new subscribers. There were the usual discount codes, but I opted for two mystery boxes to go with my first month, absolutely FREE. At £19.99, three boxes full of stuff seemed too good to pass up. My first monthly box appeared first, which I covered in my previous post.

Then a couple of days later, the other two boxes arrived. Check out how I got on.

There were a few things in the box that the video didn't do justice to. Firstly, that Pacman figure that I so casually cast aside, once removed from the packaging and having the weird accessories taken away from him, actually looked pretty nice, just a bluee tinted regular Pac, and blue happens to be my favourite colour. Here he is on what I call "The Shelf of Console Harmony".

And here's a pic of the three Pixel Bricks guys, the Ryu money box and the Sub-Zero plushie, with that Donatello Leonado Funko Fabrication from this month's Mutate box. In before anyone else, I know I need to dust more.

On an interesting note, I gave my extra Tails (heh) to my Brother-in-Law Ross, and while I was with him he all but rage quit on putting it together. When I got home I made Ken, which was easy. Blanka was a bit more challenging, but still simple. "Hah" I scoffed, "That was too easy, he was just being a bitch!". Then I picked up my Tails (heh). Whoever put together that model is a dick.

Lastly, for those who didn't/can't/won't watch, here's everything in there:

~TiD

Z-Box June 2016 "Mutate" Unboxing

Well, would you look at that? I've been a YouTuber for like half an hour and I'm already forgetting about writing here.

So about a week back I got my first Z-Box, the UK mystery subscription box service from Zavvi, and promptly made a blind unboxing video for it, then sat back in a smug stupor and paid no further thought to it, to where I'm from, to what MADE ME. Pete from the block, I ain't. So for everyone who finds my shit the old way, here it is.

I'm actively trying to curb all the effs and cees on my videos, my nephews are very active on YouTube and I don't want them to learn how to curse like a gangster rapper from good old Uncle Pete, but here and on Twitter I'm still gonna say what I want. So if anyone finds this place through YouTube, be warned. This isn't Stampy Fucking Longhead, I don't care one iota about your delicate children left alone on the Internet.

I'm not their parents.

You are.

Fun and games over, here's my almost new video. Hooray!

~TiD

Getting dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st Century, plus Nerd Block Geek & Sundry Tabletop Day 2016 box unboxing

Since starting 24 Hour Gamer UK back in 2009, the landscape of the internet has changed. As much as it may be to my dismay, the Vlog has the Blog on the ropes, so to speak, and todays audiences are much more interested in watching and listening than reading. In a way, I can understand. I've said on a number of occasions that, with the technology of today I refuse to read too much in a videogame, and I suppose the accessibility and ease of sites like YouTube and Twitch, the sentiment is transferrable.

I'd been sticking to my guns for so long simply due to my own inadequacies though. Back in school, I was the kid who, when reading anything aloud in front of the class, had to set his work down on a desk and stand with his hands behind his back so nobody could see how much they were trembling (instead drawing attention to how my fly was probably down, or that I'd stood in dogshit perhaps, it wasn't a great time to be me). In our old band I had to hop myself up on sugar before every gig, even though there were four of us and all the attention wasn't solely on me. Couple this with the fact that I look like a sleepy Bray Wyatt and am about as photogenic as an angry Bulldog, I was far more comfortable behind a wall of text.

But people kept saying I'd do better making videos, and so, just after I'd woken up the other morning, without any real thought or preparation, I made a short film unboxing the Geek & Sundry Tabletop Day 2016 Box from Nerd Block that I'd received the night before. I knocked up a quick intro and outro (on MSPaint no less), and with virtually no editing, pooped this on to YouTube for all to see.




I'm not too happy with it, I was holding the camera so it's got more shakey-cam than an episode of 24 and I had nothing planned to say, which, combined with my natural (lack of) charisma made it seem like the video was being filmed by a disinterested meth user with Parkinson's. Plus, in all my sleepy wisdom, I recorded it using my iPod Touch, when I had to hand my Samsung Galaxy S5 and a REAL LIFE DEDICATED CAMERA. In my defence it was because my headphones provided the microphone I was using, and were already paired to my iPod, but still. Laziness prevails.

For those not watching, there was a T-Shirt that was kinda cool, a notebook, a Magic: The Gathering Funko figure from 2014, a G&S bumper sticker, an admittedly hilarious Will Wheaton D6 with one pip on each face, a variant cover D&D comic from IDW, some playing cards, some RPG coins, and my favourite, freaking pencils. Two pencils with Felicia Day's name on them that allegedly cost four dollars. And change.

I'll not be paying for another Nerd Block.

The unboxing wasn't blind, I'd opened it the night before because, as with all my mystery box subscriptions, it wasn't solely mine. I paid for this, it wasn't provided by Nerd Block or Geek & Sundry, therefore my opinion wasn't swayed. But if anyone does want to send me anything like this, go for it.

~TiD

Just Crazy Enough (to work) - Eric Young on NXT

I've just sat down to my regular Thursday night ritual, finishing work at eleven, getting home around half past, grabbing something of a treat (be it a Pizza, a glass of Cognac, or tonight, a tub of Ben & Jerry's), and catching this week's NXT Show on the WWE Network (for only $9.99). I'd been looking forward to tonight's show for a while, as not only does it herald a return to the show's usual audience at Full Sail University, but it also introduces Eric Young, the World Class Maniac, to a WWE ring for the first time.

I have to sit back and pause for a moment, and drink in the fact that just 14 minutes in to this week's show, I've seen EY, Samoa Joe and Austin Aries, all together on the WWE Network, and it's not too long since James Storm was there, and only a month since Bobby Roode was filmed in the crowd. Back to the matter at hand.

I'm a huge fan of Eric Young, or at least I was a couple of years back when I first started getting back in to Pro Wrestling. You see, I love EY as a Babyface, still crazy and unpredictable but lovably so, doing goofy stuff but still coming to the aid of his friends when they needed him. Kind of like Dean Ambrose, but funnier. As the Heel he's been playing for the last Year and a half or so, he's been actually a lot more predictable, and came across as whiney, whenever something didn't go his way he'd throw a tantrum and just look stupid and childish in the process.

His entrance was interesting. His music sounds very upbeat, unlike the hard rock from his TNA days, and the way he smiled at the crowd, not to mention calling out Samoa Joe, the Heel champion, all says Face turn to me. But an angry, crazy Face. That being said, I suppose walking on to a WWE show for the first time and hearing the pop that he got, it would be hard not to smile. I also think it's interesting how he's still wearing his TNA jacket, covered in patches from things like Star Wars, Attack on Titan, Transformers and The Misfits. I'd think that would be something that the WWE would want rid of, to avoid copyright issues.

Heading into his match with Joe now, and I'm surprised it's moving so quickly. I can't see EY beating Joe, even on his debut, as this is Joe's first match as champion. Eric looks great, he's in grey tights, not the pink or turquoise trunks he's been wearing and his in ring style is a lot more intense than it has been lately, probably spurred on by a crowd that actually gives a shit. It's great to see Joe and EY together again too.

The match was great, as predicted Joe dropped Young with a Muscle Buster and a Coquina Clutch, but what was interesting was that EY did actually go for a Piledriver, his TNA finisher, but Joe reversed it. Piledrivers, with the exception of the relatively safe Tombstone and Michinoku Driver, have been outlawed in WWE for a long time after a number of neck injuries, the most high profile of which involved the late Owen Hart breaking the neck of, temporarily paralysing and shortening the career of Stone Cold Steve Austin. That being said though, I'm surprised that the Muscle Buster is still allowed after what happened with Tyson Kidd.

I really enjoyed this. I hope Eric Young actually signs with NXT, as I'd love to keep watching him. It's sad that TNA is seemingly in the throes of death right now, because I care for a lot of the wrestlers there, and where the majority of them end up going once Dixieland finally caves in will ultimately dictate what I watch to replace Impact every week, be it ROH, NJPW, GFW or LU. Now I just need NXT to sign The Wolves. And Lashley and Roode. And Jeff Hardy. And Mark Andrews. Oh, and Rockstar Spud. Bram. Gail Kim. And EC3 too. Can't forget Zema Ion, and Tigre Uno. Trevor Lee. Grado...

The tale of Platypus Kid

So every so often, life isn't so shitty. Sometimes, somebody somewhere does something so unbelievable and awesome, or hilarious, or downright stupid, that you can't help but smile, and it's the kind of thing that gets you through the day.

This afternoon I was already having kind of a wanky day. My working hours towards the end of the week are typically 2pm while about 11pm, so I have time to do daily chores and other important things like watching wrestling and spooning the cat before work, but today my borderline narcolepsy this week caused me to sleep in and forget to do any of that, leaving the kitchen smelling of dirty dishes and me running late for work. Seriously, I must have gotten 14 hours of sleep last night, on and off, which would usually have made me feel awesome, but I was just pissed at myself. I digress.

I got to the tram stop to find a young man with severe learning difficulties (I hesitate to use the word Autism, it just seems to be a go to word to generalise anything wrong with anybody these days), and his father/carer, also waiting for the tram. The kid was loudly, almost obsessively making some sort of noise, and not responding to anything his carer said, but I had my headphones on and wasn't paying attention.

When I boarded the tram, I took off my headphones as I usually do until I've seen the conductor. I work in a job where I have to deal with customers and I'm acutely aware of how fucking annoying it is when you have to address somebody who won't so much as pause their music or tear themselves away from texting their asshole friends while you're trying to help them, so I tend to sympathise with them in that way. And it was at that point I realised that this kid was actually beat boxing. And doing it really, really well.

The kid was doing an almost perfect Dubstep routine, and by the time the tram conductor had scanned my pass, I had begun to recognise the tune he was imitating. So I left my headphones off, and despite the tutting of some of the other asshole passengers and the carer repeatedly telling him to be quiet, I listened to him for a bit. My knowledge of Dubstep is limited, mostly due to most of it being shite, to be honest, so I wondered if it was Bangarang by Skrillex, as that was the only mainstream Dubstep song I was likely to recognise. Then out of nowhere, he just looked up at his carer and said;

"Terrifies the local cats, that one."

He was doing that advert, the one with the Platypus. I actually laughed out loud a little. That kid was incredible, and that little thing, that few minutes of eavesdropping and people watching along with the unique talent of a deeply withdrawn individual and the funny side of my own propensity to over-analyse things, had brightened up my day to no end. I ended up getting to work on time, and having a decent day fuelled by a great mood.

Thank you, Platypus Kid.

Rant: My ongoing courier adventures.

Over the last couple of years, with various companies inexplicably ditching the flawed but mostly reliable Royal Mail in favour of the lethargic, self-satisfied, borderline retarded cowboys that call themselves 'Couriers' (I'm looking at you, Amazon Logistics), I have developed a hate-hate relationship with said remedial amateur postal workers.

Most of my war has been waged with Amazon, ranging from passive-aggressive tweets to outright pleas to just go back to Royal Mail, followed by a string of politicians' apologies until I get exasperated and stop replying to their messages.

Today, however, I was due two parcels from Amazon Logistics, and one from Yodel. Both had a window of 8am to 9pm for their deliveries, and I was at work and not expecting either. With Amazon Logistics you have to just clench your arse and hope for the best, and sometimes you catch them. Sometimes they take one look at your home and if you live in any kind of condo building they just blue screen of death and drive on, and sometimes they do a particularly sensible brain-fart and leave it with a neighbour. But Yodel texted me this morning, and gave me a number to text if I needed to contact their driver. So I did, and this is how it went.

Note the time difference between the bottom two messages there.

Now, I'm not being over-sensitive there am I? I'd made a request, they'd denied it, fair enough. But seriously, they could have said "Sorry pal, not in the area at that time, I'll take it back to the depot and we can try again tomorrow if you'd like?" to which I'd have replied "Sure thing G! I'll be in all morning, let's make a day of it, you can come in, have a beer and we'll play some Uncharted 2 multiplayer on the PS4 because Royal Mail FUCKING DELIVERED THAT TODAY.". I don't need to be sassed from somebody who hasn't adopted this new 'punctuation' fad yet, somebody who, in the connecting text between these two screenshots that read "who is this? wgat address?", managed to overpower their spell checker, Someone who's CV probably read: "I DUN BORT ME A VANN".

So I've written my passive-aggressive tweet, filled in Yodel's survey and vented on here. And once that parcel is in my sweaty little hands, those images are going on Twitter with all the hashtags and @ thingies that I can muster.

Amazon Logistics, however, rolled up at about 8:30 in the evening, and announced that one of my parcels was missing, presumed dead. I might get it tomorrow. Oh well, to paraphrase Meatloaf, one out of three ain't bad. It's not good, but, well, it's progress.

~TiD