Pickup, Hardtop And Tank Truck

I love the design of pickup trucks from the 1930s until the late 1950s.  They were not fancy, filled with lots extras or boasted luxury interiors.  They were trucks: rough, tough and utilitarian.  And yet they were true works of art.  Function equals form.

The '37 Ford Pickup Street Rod 2' n 1 Special edition 1:25 Scale model from Revell recreates one of the best.  No matter what version you customize: classic blue with chrome trim and bumper package and side-mounted spare tire or the canary yellow "woody' with special full chrome trim, special red wheels and  custom grill, you can't loose. 

Both feature full interior details, complete upper and lower carriage accuracy and opening front hood and require a 2 Skill level (paint and glue). 

The second car I ever owned was a white '67 Chevy Impala.  It needed some body work but the interior was spotless, the huge V8 engine delivered plenty of horse power and it was built like a tank.

Revell's California Wheels '60 Chevy Impala Hardtop 2' n 1 is one of the last 'finned' motorcars with full front and rear chrome detailing for bumpers, lights side trim, window trim and a choice of two wheel types: chrome and black.

Open the hood of this classic beauty and you'll be pleasantly surprised by the perfectly scaled down engine that includes rubber hoses.  Turn the car to its rear and be prepared to be dazzled by its aerodynamic wing swept fins, overabundance of chrome and the half dozen protruding rear lights and signals. 

Throw in the interior details including the dash, instruments and seats and you've got a real sweet piece of automobile history.

Monogram presents its 1926 Mack Bulldog Tank Truck that includes so many fun features it will take your breath away.

Get a load of its front and rear open wheel chain driven wheels, protruding front bumper open passenger cab, front swept engine compartment (that opens), full under carriage super structure, decaled tank with rear and top chrome valves.  It's a beast! 

You choose the customizing as a Oil Truck or Express Delivery truck.  Clocking in at 1:24 Scale the model requires glue, paint and decal application.  

Sketchbooks

If you've never taken the opportunity to purchase and look at Comix Buro's Sketchbook series now's a good time to start.

Comix Buro recently released four more titles in its Sketchbook series of soft back books.  Measuring in a just a little smaller vertically as a comic book, the Sketchbook series are square bound, printed on heavy paper stock and contain a wide variety of art as reflected by the many artists the series spotlights.

This time around the releases cover Valley, Mazan, Mathot and CiVello.

Of the four CiVello's art is the most realistic-at as rendered.  The book is filled with realistic rendering along with fantasy sketches and drawings.  Of the four titles this one is my favorite.

Mathot's work is much more cartoonish with a heavy emphasis on character and costume design.  I especially like the pencil sketches.

Valley has a thing for urban art, specifically got urban chick-semi-nude urban chicks.  'Nuff said.

For less realistic cartoon figures Mazan fills the bill.  But, as if to demonstrate the talent of the artist, very realistic renderings of ancient archeological sites are also included.

Regardless of what book you choose to buy (Why not buy all of them?), Comix Buro's Sketchbook recent releases are a perfect choice.

Star Wars Top Trumps Tournament

I came across Top Trumps a little over a year ago.  I have to admit I was not familiar with the company.  After looking over their website and checking out their products I was intrigued.  I obtained several of their games and thoroughly enjoyed them.  Not only were they fun to play but they were fun to look at.  Many of the games are taken from popular movies and use photos from each.  Cards are packaged in a rough and tough plastic containers that keep cards clean, sharp and safe.

Top Trumps presents a new twist on their games with its Star Wars Top Trumps Tournament.  Packaged in a lidded game box wrapped in Star Wars photos, the game includes six card packs (Episodes 1-3, Episodes 4-6, Starships, Clone Wars Computer Animated, Clone Wars Cell Animation and Top 30 Moments, pegs and card holder with spinner.

Cards include battle stats such as battle skills and brains.  Gamers select cards from the spinner rack by spin.  Six mini-games are played and gamers add pegs to their score bar.  Whoever gets nine pegs first wins the mini-games.  Players then move onto the final round.  Cards equal pegs and whoever has pegs left wins the game.

Now this is my kind of game.  I don't know about you but I don't have time to get enmeshed in a role-playing game (table or online) or play hours worth of video games.  The entire family can enjoy this game and spend quality game time together.