Review: Hot Wheels Brick Rides 7

I was alerted to the existence of this model by Shades Corvid on one of the Discord serves we hang out on.  This is new for 2024.  As you can see by the package this isn't part of the "Brick Rides" or "Experimotors" sub-groups.  According to the Hot Wheels wiki all the models in the "HW Metro" sub-group haven't been released and/or discovered, so I don't know if an alt-color version of this exists.

Package. I paid $1.19 at Target for this.

Disassembled.  Wind Screen, Box, and

Base.  The Box could represent Defense

or Movement.  The Windscreen could

represent Defense or Spotting. Or, you could

use these pieces to represent White Dice.

Assembled.

Size Comparison.  These seem to

have a similar volume to a Chub.

The Questions:
Is it below, at, or above $10 per Frame? Below. (+5)
Is it a good size to use in a game? Yes. About the same size as a Chub. (+5)
How many parts does it have to represent systems? Two. (0)
Does it have enough parts you can remove to represent White Dice damage? No. (-5)
Score: +5 (B+).  The parts in this set are kind of big and bulky.  The base could make for a good Movement system for another Frame though.

Review: Hot Wheels Brick Rides 6?

While shopping at Wegman's I came across one of the 2024 Hot Wheels/Mega Bloks crossover vehicles, the Dark Blue one.  I found the other one at Target almost two months later after seeing hints of its existence on the Hot Wheels wiki.

Package. I paid $1.29 at Wegman's for one of these.

Disassembled. Body, Engines, and Skull Tile. The

Engines could represent Direct Fire, Artillery, Movement

or Spotting. The Skull Tile could represent Defense.

Assembled.

Size Comparison.  These seem to have a similar volume to a Chub.

The Questions:
Is it below, at, or above $10 per Frame? Below. (+5)
Is it a good size to use in a game? Yes. About the same size as a Chub. (+5)
How many parts does it have to represent systems? Two. (0)
Does it have enough parts you can remove to represent White Dice damage? No. (-5)
Score: +5 (B+).  All the things I've said about the previous models holds true here.  I really like the attachments it comes with.

Review: Make-It Blocks Pull Back Car 3

Crossing the finish line, let's look at the last of the new line of Make-It Blocks sets for this week's reviews.

Box.  MSRP is $1.25, for a $0.02 Price per Piece.

Instructions & Stickers.

Parts.  Pull Back Motor, Plates, Studless Slopes, Extra Large Cheese

Slopes, Corner Plates, Corner Tiles, Axle Plate, Notched Corner Tiles,

Jumpers, Large Cheese Slope, Cheese Grater, Quarter Circle Tiles, Cheese

Slopes, Round Plates, Wedge Studless Slopes, Brackets, and Stadium Tiles.

Build.  IO Frigate.

The Questions:

Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  Below.  (+5)  (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  Yes.  (+5)
Score: +20 (A+).  I like it.  Too bad one of those Extra Large Cheese Slopes has printing on it.

Review: Make-It Blocks Pull Back Car 2

Maintaining speed, let's keep looking at another new line of Make-It Blocks sets for this week's reviews.

Box.  MSRP is $1.25, for a $0.02 Price per Piece.

Instructions & Sticker.

Parts.  Pull Back Motor, Plates, Wedge w/Cutout, Rims, Tiles, Axle Plate,

Wedge Plates, corner Plates, Studless Slope, Hinge Plates, Large Cheese

Slopes, Tires, Tiles w/Studs on End, Translucent Round Tiles, Clip Tiles, 

Cheese Slopes, Round Plates, Translucent Quarter Circle Tiles, Wedge

Studless Slopes, Brackets, Panels, Bars, and Minifig Ice Skates.

Build.  IO Frigate (1B/1Y).  Systems are in Orange.

I may just have to build more of these.

 

The Questions:

Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  Below.  (+5)  (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  Yes.  (+5)
Score: +20 (A+).  I like the selection of parts in this set.

Review: Make-It Blocks Pull Back Car 1

Changing gears, quite literally, let's take a look a third new line of Make-It Blocks sets for this week's reviews.

Box.  MSRP is $1.25, for a $0.02 Price per Piece.

Instructions & Sticker.

Parts.  Pull Back Motor, Transparent Windscreen, Plates, Tires, Axle Plate, Tile w/

Studs on Side, Tiles, Corner Plates, Tiles w/Studs on End, Rims, Bar Plate, Door

Rail Plate, Jumper, Studless Slopes, Bricks, Curved Bricks w/Cutout, Brick w/Studs

on Sides, Skeleton Arms, Spoiler, Brackets, Minifig Binoculars, and Cheese Slopes.

Build.  IO Frigate (1B/2Y).  Systems are Silver.

The Questions:

Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  Below.  (+5)  (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  Yes.  (+5)
Score: +20 (A+).  An interesting selection of parts and the majority being Black is always useful.

Battle Report: Back In (Intercept) Orbit

After almost six years we've returned to Intercept Orbit as a gaming group.  It's been close to ten years since we've played the RAW.  Occam's Spork was new to IO and I hadn't played in a long time so this was basically a learning experience for both of us.

Me (5 Tactical Assets & 18 Systems) = (7 Points per Asset) * (8 assets) = 56 points. (Fleet 6)
   Great White Cruiser Heavy Hunter Seeker -- 2Rs+d8/2Y/2W.
   Lime Thresher Frigate Pocket Carrier -- 2Rpd/2K/1Gd6/2W.
   Red Thresher Frigate Escort -- 2Rpd/2B/1Gd6/2W.
   Lime Frame Squad (Yellow Ace) -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y+d8/2W.
   Lavender Frame Squad -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W.

Occam's Spork (6 Tactical Assets & 21 Systems) = (3 Points per Asset) * (9 assets) = 27 points. (Fleet 17)
   Manta Ray Cruiser Heavy Hunter Seeker -- 2Rs+d8/2Y/2W.
   Lime Stingray Frigate Light Carrier -- 2Rpd/2K/1Gd6/2W.

   Yellow Stingray Frigate Light Carrier -- 2Rpd/2K/1Gd6/2W.
   Red Stingray Frigate Heavy Escort -- 2Rpd+d8/1B/1Gd6/2W.
   White Frame Squad (Yellow Ace) -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y+d8/2W.
   Black Frame Squad -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W.

This is what the table looked like at the start of the game.

Events of Round 1 (DDC@11): Occam's Spork's Yellow frigate maneuvers through my formation, captures my Blue HVA, then launches his Black frame squad onto my Cruiser.  My Lime frigate initiates an intense maneuver burn -- cutting across the bow of my Cruiser -- then hits Occam's Spork's Black frame squad for 2.  My Lavender Frame Squad is launched onto and captures Occam's Spork's Green HVA, then jumps to Occam's Spork's Lime frigate.  My Lime frame squad (Yellow Ace) is launched onto my Cruiser.  Occam's Spork's Black frame squad hits my Cruiser for 1, then hops to my Lime frigate.  My Cruiser hits Occam's Spork's Red frigate for 1 then turns to starboard.  My Lime frame squad (YA) jumps to my Lime frigate then hits Occam's Spork's Black frame squad for 3.  Occam's Spork's Cruiser hits my Cruiser for 3.  Occam's Spork's White frame squad (Yellow Ace) hits my Red frigate for 1.  Occam's Spork's White frame squad (YA) boards my Red frigate.  In response my Red frigate hits Occam's Spork's White frame squad for 2.  My Lime frame squad (YA) prevents Occam's Spork's Black frame squad from boarding my Lime frigate.  During that boarding attempt my Lime frigate hits Occam's Spork's Black frame squad for 1, destroying it.  My Lavender frame squad fails to board Occam's Spork's Lime frigate.  All HVAs on both sides begin a maneuver scramble looking for open space away from the conflict.

Me: 49 points.

Occam's Spork: 27 points.

Events of Round 2 (DDC @ 8): My Red frigate -- under control of Occam's Spork's White frame Squad (YA) -- banks to starboard and rams my Lime frigate, doing 2 damage to itself and 1 damage to the Lime frigate.  My Lime frame squad swings around the hull of my Lime frigate and hits Occam's Spork's White frame squad (YA) for 2.  My Lime frigate hits Occam's Spork's White frame squad (YA) for 4, destroying it.  Occam's Spork's Yellow frigate hits my Lime frigate for 7, destroying it, then banks to starboard.  Occam's Spork's Lime frigate banks slightly to port, moving between an asteroid and a planetoid, then hits my Cruiser for 1.  Occam's Spork's Red frigate moves forward and captures my Red HVA.  Occam's Spork's Cruiser hits my Cruiser for 1, destroying it.  My Lavender frame squad boards Occam's Spork's Lime frigate.  All HVAs on both sides continue to maneuver for open space away from the conflict.  The Doomsday Clock is ticked to five.  The game is called on account of time.

Me: 35 points.

Occam's Spork: 30 points.

Here are several during and aftermath pictures.

Round 1.

Round 1.

Round 2.

Round 2.

Round 2.

Round 2.

Round 2.

Round 2.

Round 2.

Thoughts & Observations:

• Did I say Rules As Written?  I kinda lied.  We counted Frame Squad Systems when doing PPA calculations.
• This is something I've been talking about wanting to change in the rules structure for IO for a while.
• But with only one data point I'm not sure what effect it's going to have.
• I went back and worked on a lot of different starship designs in preparation for this game.
• Since I was anticipating more players I only had two fleets with three HVAs built.
• I used a poster for the table covering for this game.
• We'll probably use less terrain next time as the book suggests three to five pieces and we had fourteen.
• We only color tagged the Frigates as there was only one Cruiser in each fleet.
• We had two successful Boardings, one unsuccessful, and one repelled.
• We had one Ram attack.  As far as I know this is the first one that did more damage to the rammer than the rammee.
• Yellow Aces and the stacking of Spots is really powerful.
• We had to cut things short due to a prior engagement for Occam's Spork.
• We lost a bunch of time in the prep/set up phase as we both were formulating our fleets from scratch.
• IO also has a few more steps than RA so that chewed up some time too.
• I was down two ships at the end of the second round so I probably would have lost if we played a longer game.
• I'm going to change up my fleet slightly for the next time I use it.
• I had mis-remembered the Yellow Ace powers so I built the fleet around a faulty idea.
• I feel like I had a less visceral reaction this time to playing IO under the regular rules than the last time we tried it.
• Flickr page.

Random Starships 10

It's been six months since the last one, so here's a few spaceship pictures for your enjoyment in continuance of Intercept Orbit week.

Cherry Bomb by Jonas Jensen.  Possibly too large to be a Cruiser but

it has fantastic color use and some techniques that can be borrowed.

6929 Starship Voyager Microscale Redux by littlepixel.

A Classic Space build that fits into IO?  Yes, please!

Harpia (01) by F@bz.  It's twice as long as an IO Cruiser but it looks fantastic

and you should be able to downsize it for use on the game table.

EML Frigate by Red Spacecat.  Definitely too

large but, look at the lines on this thing!

Marineris-Class Space Sloop by Thr35Fingers.  This looks like it's

roughly IO Frigate sized and it has a definite "Expanse" vibe going

for it.  A flotilla featuring these would look pretty cool on the table.