The Best of 2025 Awards

 And so the year comes to a close, meaning it is once again time for the longtime tradition of lists.

 

Because everyone makes lists these days, and so have I been doing for years now!

 

And as always, this is a list of all the totally subjective things I saw / read / experienced over the course of the year 2025, some might be highly unagreeable, some might be making some sense, but all are totally and utterly irrelevant to the people around!  But never the less, I hope it brings you a few minutes of reading enjoyment!

 

And so, without further ado, the best off overview in all it's annual categories...

 

Best Movie: well, let's kick off with something subjective, and that was for me War of the Rohirrim.  It flopped at the box office, it divided the fanbase, yet somehow I liked how it "slipped" into the lore without bending it to much.

 

Best Series: well, this one has been on the list since january (I always make a skeleton list, and if I experience something better replace the older entry) and that is Arcane season 2.  While not as legendary as the first season, it still remained a true epic!

 

Best Performance: a lot can be said about the Wheel of Time series, from accuracy to casting choices, but I loved Zoe Robins in it over the course of the three seasons.  Nynaeve just hit my buttons of getting "involved" in the series, compared to many other casting choices.

 

Best Book: Bedrieg Mij, a flemish casestudy book about the world of cuckolding and the journey of exploration the writer experienced in finding this all out.

 

Best Toy: Efteling Luville Meisje met de Zwavelstokjes.  It is by far the saddest fairy tale in the Efteling, but the christmas village set just captures that one moment of beautiful sadness, when the girl goes to her beloved grandma.

 

Best Anime: Buddy Daddies, a bit of an unexpected hit for me.  In a year with some topline anime titles, this one just slipped into my viewing list and I really, really enjoyed this one.

 

Best Game: okay, totally subjective pick on this one, and that is Spitewood, the new expansion to Underworlds.  I still don't like the current edition over the old one, but at least this one brought me AND the return of Elathain, AND the arrival of the Chaos Dwarfs into the game system.

 

Best Videogame: Innocence or Money.  Yes this is an adult game, one of those story choice driven ones, in which you can make the lead character a girl holier then the pope, or send her down the rabbit hole of pleasure and debauchery.

 

Best Wargame Figure: the Imperial Noble from classic Warhammer Quest.  I always loved his regal outlook, so it was only fitting to get myself a fresh one from Vinted to paint up as the general for my Escalation League.

 

Best Music: Ghost - Dance Macabre.  This group has been around for some years now, but I only really discovered their music in earnest this year, and haven't regretted it one moment.

 

Best Trade: during the Halle Underworlds tournament in the first half of the year, back then still at Mishra's, I found a box with old Star Trek Attack Wing tournament packs in his basement.  I asked what he wanted for them, and he sold me all 19 packs for 30 euro!

 

Best Convention or Event: the very first Mines of Alost tournament for Warhammer Underworlds.  It was a Rivals format and I had my game group pick my warband, and they "gave" me Garrek's Reavers, the good old Granddaddy Aggro himself.  I won the tournament with him...

 

But I would say this is a tie, because at Antwerp Tattoo Convention, I found a lovely lady artist from Macedonia who brought this lovely little piece of ink to my arm... 

 

Greatest Disappointment: the TSA The Old World Escalation League.  A combination of calendar issues on the one hand and not at all liking how the game has turned from a "wargame" to a "listgame" has turned me away from the system.  I might play that occassional event or so, but this game needs for my tastes serious fixing.  Maybe I'll do a little video on that in the future, don't know yet...

 

And there we have it, all the categories and winners of my past year 2025.  They will receive their non-existant awards never, but maybe there are one or two things in that list that tickle your fancy a bit and might want to make you going to watch or experience X or Y...

 

Until next year, and take care! 

 

 

Guardians of the Galaxy holiday special

 A special from Marvel to celebrate the festive season, it features our beloved band of misfits, the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Written and directed by James Gunn before he made the move to DC, it shares continuity with the MCU universe, taking place after Quill lost Gamora.

The Guardians have purchased Knowhere from the Collector, and their ranks are expanded with Cosmo, the spacedog, as their newest member.  They learn from Kraglin how Yondu has ruined christmas for Quill, and this makes Mantis and Drax decide they want to restore the feel for him.  They decide to travel to Earth and retrieve Peter's childhood hero, Kevin Bacon.

After spending time in Hollywood, they track down his mansion and they try to bring him along.  The police tries to stop our heroes from abducting him, but they manage to put them in a trance and bring Bacon to Knowhere.  But there they learn he isn't an actual hero but an actor instead.  

As they gift him to Peter, he is horrified by the fact they abducted someone, demanding they return him home.  As Kevin Bacon learns the motivations of the Guardians why they acted that way, and how he was Peter's inspiration, he decides to celebrate christmas with them before being returned home, giving a concert for Peter.  

After the party, Peter reveals to Matis that Yondu actually changed his mind about christmas, and it was him who gifted Peter his signature blasters.  Mantis in turn confides she is actually Peter's half-sister as she is also a daughter of Ego.

This was a fun special for sure, with the usual Guardians of the Galaxy humour abundant.  Worth a watch for the festive season, and definitly beats all those Hallmark christmas movies...

Sand and Bone Terrain Pieces

 Yes, I did it this time, painted up the scenery parts of the latest Spearhead set in less then a year this time...

 

Only about half a year actually lol... 

 

The set actually was features in the WarCry set before, but as I didn't buyt that one, having the Underworlds warbands that where included already.  So now I could tackle the six parts, which are smaller, or less volumunous then the previous set.

 

The first one I painted up was the largest of the wall sections, going for a darker grey tone this time. 

  

I then did the other large section, which is a fence and paints up really fast with all the metal spikes. 

 

And as such, I also painted up the next fence section then, the smaller one, as this took about a day on and off painting while doing other things.

 

After the fences where completed, it was the small solid wall section that was then painted, rounding out the "basic" terrain pieces of the set.

 

Going into the special pieces in the set, the large female bust statue was painted up first, going for a ghostly green on her "skin".

 

The final piece to be painted was the vampire crypt, and this took the most time of all of the set to complete.

 

So there we have it, the Sand and Bone terrain set finished in the same actual year it was released... albeit with only days to spare before the year ended.

 

Ain't I a powerhouse painter lol... 

Dear Santa

 It's the holiday season, and that means christmas movies!

And what do you get when you let the man in the house pick the movie for the evening... yeah, Jack Black.

 

Liam is a soft, but dyslexic, 6th grader whose parents are having marriage issues due to the death of his little brother and their move to another town.  Adding to that, he doesn't dare introduce his friend Gibby, and makes a fool of himself in front of his school crush Emma.

 

Hoping for the best, he writes a letter to Santa, but misspells it instead as Satan, who appears before him amazed he actually got a letter.  Liam does still believe though he is Santa, and he grants Liam three wishes in exchange for his soul.  This helps Liam getting a date with Emma to a Post Malone concert, for which Satan even provides VIP tickets.

 

 

Gibby though points out his mistake, but Liam can't get out of the deal anymore.  Returning home, his parents have enlisted the help of child psychologist Dr Finkelman, but Gibby and Satan interrupt his interview to bring Liam to the concert.  There he is called on stage together with Emma, but when Liam notices Gibby's disappointment due to his huge overbite, he uses his second wish to make that better.

 

Going with Emma and Gibby to the christmas carnival, his parents steal him away and bring him to Dr Finkelman's clinic, fearing his fantasies are getting out of hand.  But a nurse who was at the concert shatters the theory Liam might be delusional, and his regretful parents begin to reconcile.  Liam misunderstands them and sneaks to Santa's motelroom to use his third wish, to keep his parents in love forever.

 

Back in Hell, it is revealed Satan is actually a low-ranking half demon under trials to become an anctual one.  Here he is chastised by Lucifer for granting two unselfish wishes to Liam, making the soul deal invalid, and he will be banished.  He says his goodbye's to Liam and confesses his act, and tells him his parents made up on their own, so he used the contents of Liam's letter to make up for the third wish.

 

 

When christmas arrives next day, his brother appears, resurrected to celebrate the holidays with his family in their new home.  Liam gets a call from Gibby, who has convinced Emma to give Liam another try, by telling her about his brother's death.  This causes Liam to panic as to how to explain his ressurection to her though...

 

A fine fun, innocent christmas comedy, definitly better then the Hallmark stuff they shove down out throats this period, and worth a watch with the family.

The Haul Report 427

 The last one before the holiday loot comes to town, so let's have a look at what stuff I obtained in this last month.

 

And it has been a nice little stack once again... 

 

Let's start with a price figure, my victory from Mines of Alost 2 yielded this guy, and they finally arrived. 

 

Of course, it was Black Friday, and I took advantage of a very good deal with De Spelvogel, grabbing these three boxes for a massive 85 euro discount and free shipping on top... 

 

Participating and ending third in the final Underworlds tournament this year yielded a WarCry token sheet, a coupon from the sponsor store (already ordered my set) and a 3d printed naked zombie lady.

 

As well as this fantastic T-shirt as the community, unknown to me, had voted me Best Underworlds Player in Belgium for the year. 

 

Through Vinted I found this missing novel for my Underworlds series, so that's some good reading ahead the coming time.

 

Noshi's collegue once again brought back the new seasonal pins from Efteling, so I won't miss out on them anymore.  And the big one is really, really big! 

 

From Vinted, I also found one of the older 't Smidje pins to help further complete the series.

 

As the Helsmiths of Hashut collectible coin came out this month, I of course needed to have that one for my collection, so a trip to the Warhammer store made me pick up my Idoneth book at last, as well as some more Razors. 

 

A trip to Baillien, the local hobby supplies store, brought me back some highly needed essentials, as my final 0 size brush was on it's last, and my varnish down to it's final quarter of the bottle.

 

And a boardgame also arrived, Vice, created by Belgian ex-porn producer Dennis Black Magic.  It comes with an adult version, so that will be some intresting game nights...

  

Rounding out this Haul, is a beerbox from my Frontaal subscription, so I won't go into the holidays dry-mouthed hehehe...

 

Until next time, when it'll be all about the holiday loot! 

 

 

 

 

Red One

 December is christmas movie month, and as I try to avoid those Hallmark romatic drama's it was time for something else.

An action movie with Santa's bodyguard!  We actually saw this movie right at the beginning of the year, but I saved it for publishing until now to give YOU inspiration for that funnier thing to watch next week during christmas eve, ain't I great!

Callum "Cal" Drift, played by the Rock, is the commander of ELF, the organisation tasked with guarding Santa Claus.  But he has become desillusioned with humanity, as now more are on the naughty list then aren't, and as such asked to retire after one more christmas run.  

But the day before Christmas eve, Santa Claus is kidnapped from the North Pole, after it's secret location was found and sold by con-man Jack O'Malley (hello Captain America).  Jack is brought in by MORA, an organisation handling mythical creatures, and interrogated.  He has to team up with a reluctant Cal to go out and find the man he sold the data to, bringing them to Aruba.  But the man is just an inbetween, as the real kidnapper is the Christmas Witch Gryla, who is working together with Santa's brother Krampus.  

Jack and Callum are captured, but thanks to Jack's fast thinking they can escape after trying to appeal to Krampus for reuniting with his brother.  They reveal to him that Gryla actually wants the magical power draining snow globe, the Glaskafig.  She wants to rid the world of every child that has been naughty, but as she tests it on Jack and his son Dylan, the two grow closer to each other in their imprisonment.  Becoming "nicer" that way, the globes break as Zoe and Callum find the hideout thanks to a tracker inside Jack.  They free ms Claus and the security staff, and in Santa's old workshop retrieve Jack and Dylan.

Gryla is stopped by Jack and Callum, aided by Krampus who came to make ammends.  Santa recovers and seals the witch in one of her replica Glaskafigs, as everyone prepares for the Christmas run as time has now ran short.  Jack and Dylan are invited to come along, and during the run Callum sees the inner child of Jack, bringing him back from his plan to retire.

So this was a funny movie, a bit of action, some comedy and cool snowman henchmen, not to mention the fantastic "Red One taking off" scene after Santa spend a day in the mall talking to children.  

Will it win an oscar?  Of course not, but neither would those Hallmark monstrosities and at least this doesn't leave you with stomach pain even before you have to overeat yourself at the christmas dinner table...

Mobile Suit Gundam: GQuuuuuuX

 Okay, to kick things off, I have no idea how to pronounce this Gundam series title...

 

And this is a bit of a special entry, as the story completely concludes in it's 12 episode run, making the shortest of the "main" storyline series.

 

The series is set in an alternate reality Universal Century, in which Zeon actually won the One Year War, with Char seizing the RX-78-02 White Gundam as well as the White Base ship during the assault on Side 7.  This means Char became it's pilot, painting it red and changing the outcome of the war as such.  But he disappears in a phenomenon called Zeknova, and some characters that died in the original series, are still alive in this universe.

 

From there, the red gundam is found by some kids, who set out after it in an experimental Gundam and team up to form an underground battle arena group, the Pomeranians.  Amate, piloting the experimental titular Gundam and Shuji piloting the Red Gundam form a very strong tandem, but soon bigger things start to take place.  More and more they get involved in the machinations that go on in the Zeon goverment, including the assassination of it's ruler, the return of Char and the appearance of a mysterious girl, Lalah Sune, captured inside the "Rose Gundam".  Which, as they note, actually looks more like a tulip.

 

What follows is basically a restoration of the timelines, as the Rose Gundam doesn't belong in this reality, with Shuji being actually from somewhere else and must destroy their reality to protect Lalah as he tried so many times over.  But Amate convinces him and they can settle this timeline to co-exist with others.

 

It was at first not really my cup of tea I must admit, feeling a bit like a modern day, but not so good, G-Gundam, but without burning fingers.  However, once the second half started to come around, the story became grander and actually a lot better, and it drew me along.  But there remained some issues for me, like the design of the Gundam's themselves.  They just didn't "do" it for me, taking the style of the IBO Barbatos but then modernising it even further, feeling even like "to far", while the Witch of Mercury could show them on the other hand well done for modern times.

 

The animation style was as expected more of a modern take, but it was vibrant and okay for me, though I know people that prefer the more classic approach.  Nothing to do about that though I'd guess, it's a thing of the times.

 

But is it worth watching?  Surely, albiet short you can go through the whole series in an afternoon if you like, just keep hanging on in those first 4 - 5 episodes and you will be enjoying it in the end!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Babylon 5 ACTA: Sagittarius Missile Cruiser

 Well, what is in a name...

 

This Earth Alliance early era cruiser is just as subtle as the bowman constellation it is named after: it shoots missiles in all directions.

 

A Skirmish level vessel with average armour and hit points, it's use is as simple as it gets: hang back and launch the signature weapons of the Early era fleet, missiles.  Which, with the missile variant rules can actually become really nasty.  But that is just it's role, launch broadside after broadside (well, at least once you reload, because slow-loading) into the enemy lines.

 

Now, while this is a robust and typical "Earth Alliance brick" vessel, there is one issue.  It's engine section, being solid metal, is so heavy that it is a misery to mount it on a flight stand.  Even with drilling, superglue and a larger round plate at the bottom, it is prone to fall over.  I solved it in the end (a lesson learned from 20 years ago when we played it like crazy), is to mount it really, but really low, just showing a short piece of stem to do the measuring from and to.

 

Now, let's go off and pummel them with the subtelity of a brick... literally. 

 

 

Halo season 1

 Well, it has only been out for 3 years or so, but finally I got round to start watching the series, based on the immensely popular video game franchise.

 

Which, I must say, I never actually played in earnest, though I know the Master Chief. 

 

Well enough to know he never removes his helmet, only to do so halfway episode 1 already and leave it off for most of the series.  Which I guess makes it more intresting for filming, but if you see that it could be done in The Mandalorian...

 

When in 2552 the Covenant attacks an outpost on the planet Madrigal, massacring everyone bar Kwan Ha, the daughter of the insurrectionist leader, Silver Team led by Master Chief, aka John, intervenes.  He finds a Forerunner key, that unlocks some of his hidden childhood memories.  Professor Halsey works on a new AI, Cortana, which is based of Halsey's own brain patterns.

 

John rebels by refusing to execute Kwan Ha, and brings her to an old friend, Soren, to keep her safe as he realises he must have seen the key as a child.  The Silver Team is send to retrieve him and the keystone, while Makee, a human collaborator with the Covenant, insists she can retrieve the stone as well with the Covenant Prophets.  With a rouse, Makee gets to follow John, who has been implanted with Cortana, something he isn't to happy about of having an AI living in his head.  But he removes the pellet though that supresses his emotions to connect better with the keystone visions.

 

John is convinced that the second keystone is hidden on his homeplanet, and he travels there with Halsey.  On reach, Kai, another member of Silver Team, also removes her pellet secretly, while helping Miranda discover the use of the keystones.  They discover it is connected to something the Covenant call the Halo.  Kwan goes to look for allies in the fight to help her people, hunted by the governor Grath, a ruthless tyrant.   After surviving a Covenant ambush during the excavation for the second keystone, Makee is left behind and connects with John.

 

This leads to a deeper connection as she tells him they are both "blessed" with the ability to activate the keystones, and that the Covenant holy planet is in the Aspero system.  John also learns the truth of the Spartan program and how he and others where kidnapped as kids and replaced with clones that died rather fast after the switch, seemingly of illness.

 

Kwan and Soren confront the governor and his troops, as a Forerunner portal is seemingly hidden away on the planet and it is her family lines duty to protect it.  Grath tries to take them out, but they overcome him and kill him in blast of exploding deuterium fuel.  John and Makee travel to the holy planet, followed by Silver Team send to stop him after they escape from the UNSC vessel.  On the planet, Makee turns back to her Covenant loyalties, and when Silver Team is about to be overwhelmed by the enemy, John allows Cortana to take over his body functions, saving his friends and getting the keystone along with them.

 

This surely wasn't a bad series, and I guess I'll be going to watch the second (and final) season in pretty short order as well.  Special effects are awesome, and the story was okay, but as I said in the beginning, I'm going in blank so have no clue how far it diverges from the source material... 

Alien: Rubicon

 Every now and then you just need to watch one of those low-budget, bad acting B-movies, and that is when The Asylum never fails to deliver.

 

Also, this has nothing even vaguely to do with the Alien franchise. 

 

Starting things off, the alien on the poster... not in the movie.  The aliens are nothing more then big flyung spheres that ravage the city. When dr Morrow plans on taking the days of with his kids, he is summoned by the government.  A huge sphere is approaching Earth from the same direction he picked up a signal years ago.

 

But when he and military man Captain Jeffe try to use a laser to tag it, it unleashes a destructive blast, setting course for Washington DC.  The military tries all in it's might to bring the sphere down, but it's offensive and defensive capabilities are to much for the army to handle.  

 

 

Of course, as with low budgets flicks, the solution is often pretty dumb.  Turns out we had a secret weapon in space all along, and the higher up that knew kept his mouth shut while entire cities are ravaged by what in the end only turned out to be a probe, more vessels on their way to our planet...

 

No, this isn't a good movie, but you don't expect more of it after all.  The Asylum are a special case in their productions, in a manner that it is so bad it is good, and yeah well, it's good to watch during the night hours while putting together some figures or hugging the bench on a lazy evening.

 

Watch, but don't have high expectations... 

Star Trek Prodigy season 2

 When a kiddie cartoon is beter then Star Trek Discovery, second cour...

 

And it's no lie, this series that is based around the retrieval of capt Chakotay and breaking timelines is actually great fun... and has some more illumini appear this season.

 

The story takes off about a year after the events of the season 1 finale, as Admiral Janeway recruits our young heroes Dal, Rok Tahk, Jankom Pog, Murf and Zero to join her aboard her new ship, the Voyager A.  They work as cadets though, but soon discover there is a special mission about to happen with a ship called the Infinity to retrieve Janeway's best friend.  

 

On present day Solum, Gwyn struggles with a coup forged by Ascensia, and reunites with the Diviner's younger uncorrupted self and her father to be, Ilthuran.  Dal and his friends, together with a young vulcan called Maj'el, accidentally activate the Infinity and tossed to the future, locked away together with Chakotay.  Gwyn loses the challenge, while the cadets set Chaokotay free and manage to launch the Protostar into the future, hopefully restoring the timeline.  Murf in the meantime is contacted by a stranger...

 

As they take the Infinity through a Borg conduit, they set out to find whoever is being sending messages to both Murf and Gwyn, and start connecting dot's during various adventurous in the quadrant, like a mind control device and a new body for Zero on a Medusan refugee planet.  They arrive at a Time Ziggurat, hidden in a pocket dimension, where they are greeted by Wesley Crusher.  he was the mysterious person sending messages, as the timeline hasn't been restored and theirs is actually dying, slowly invaded by time parasites called The Loom who feast on closing timelines.

 

Wesley reveals the plan to find Chakotay and restore the timeline, sending them off before The Loom take the upperhand, and realises Maj'el is the seventh variable.  They come to a sandy planet, finding a stranded Protostar and Chakotay who apparently has been there for 10 years already since their previous meeting.  They manage to convince him to heal the paradox, and set out making the ship spaceworthy again.  They will need to build a new protocore to return to Voyager though, whom is 3000 light years away.

 

They manage this on a planet of genetically enhanced tribbles, and set off for the rendez-vous, and Zero gets a body looking like her old one, as the new one is breaking down, but improved with more senses.  Ascensia however is still bound on destroying the Federation, and her battleship Rev-1 engages the Protostar and Voyager A.  They are then ordered to Solum, where Wesley is being held captive by Ascensia to make a temporal weapon, the Incursor.  

 

The Protostar crew infiltrates, freeing Wesley and Ilthuran, and the people of Solum rise against Ascensia, triggering the civil war events, but Janeway decides to ignore the Prime Directive and aid the people against the tyrant.  As she launches her fleet against the Federation, as the wormhole is opened to send the Protostar back to where it all began and restoring the time paradox.  As everyone settles back into their normal life, and adding some nice details like Wesley visiting dr Crusher and meeting his infant brother Jack (nice Picard reference here), and the Mars Attack from Picard season 1 takes place, cementing the series in the timeline.  The cadets are field promoted to Ensigns, and Dal realises he is more of a first officer then a captain material, handing command of the ship they received for their training to Gwyn, the Protostar class USS Prodigy.

 

And as they set out to learn the ropes and explore new planets while the body of the fleet is facing the events that transpire in Picard, the series comes to a close in what was a great and fun run, well worth checking out!