Blood Bowl night of horrors

As it was Friday the 13th, I decided to debut my Necromantic Horrors team (boosted by a werewolf star player that I built a few days ago). I also debuted my Blood Bowl themed t-shirt that Bryan and Elaine got me for Christmas.

The phrase "Nuffle giveth and Nuffle taketh away" was very apt as my team of zombies, ghouls, golem, werewolves and wraiths started strong, putting two opponents into the casualty box. But gradually the game turned towards the lizard-men, who had star player Anqi Panqi making a debut for them. And my dice rolls couldn't keep up. (And, truthfully, my tactical understanding of the necromantic team was very poor.)

The necromantic team benefits from most players having the "regeneration" skill. This gives a coach a 50/50 chance of a player avoiding becoming a casualty and missing the rest of the game. A number of players were saved this way but the body count was so high, regeneration couldn't save everyone!

On top of that I was soon a haunted bedsheet down when one of my wraiths got sent off for trying to foul an opponent. To make matters worse, I tried to "argue the call", rolled a 1, and got ejected from the ground.

The Lizard-men went ahead towards the end of the first half, a skink making an extra dashing yard to score. 

Anqi Panqi didn't do very much on his debut for the lizards, but Roxy the Kroxigor bossed the midfield, making two successful blitzes and also carrying the ball for several yards before a team-mate fumbled receiving the ball from her. 

That loose ball proved crucial, as one of my werewolves, who was back on after regenerating, got hold of the ball and charged downfield.  Despite being surrounded by three players at one point, the lycanthrope managed to score a very unlikely equaliser on the penultimate turn!

So the final score was 1-1, which I almost felt embarrassed about, it was so undeserved. 

Album of the Month: The HU, Rumble of Thunder

Another band I discovered through Planet Rock and another CD I got for Christmas. The song I heard was their cover of Iron Maiden's The Trooper, which caught my ear. Sometimes I can tell from just one song that I'm going to like a band. I added the album to my wishlist even though The Trooper wasn't on there. It was a gamble that paid off.

The HU are Mongolian. They formed after heavy metal music was legalised in Mongolia, only a few years ago. Rather than trying to ape Western metal, they use electric versions of traditional Mongolian musical instruments combined with Mongolian throat singing, which works well in the metal genre. There are pictures of the trad instruments made metal in the CD booklet.

They also sing most of their songs in Mongolian, which I also like about them. I admire their authenticity as they try to make heavy metal that reflects their Mongolian culture, instead of just copying a narrow version of "metal" as it has developed in the UK and USA. 

As a fan of physical format media, I was very pleased with the bonus trading cards of the band members that came with the CD. You don't get this sort of thing when you just ask your smart speaker to play something. It was a nice surprise to discover them when I opened the CD. 

On the backs it gives the instrument the band member plays.

Musically, several tracks are quite nicely heavy. They tend to be up-tempo and almost aggressive. But Triangle is brilliantly melodic, while Mother Nature is a soft piece, befitting it's topic. 

This is the deluxe CD with three bonus versions of tracks that include guest artists singing lyrics in English. I didn't feel that added much and preferred the Mongolian original versions, but it's good to see artists like William Duvall (Alice in Chains) and Serj Tankian (System of a Down) embracing the HU and working with them.

Details

Year of release: 2023

Tracks: 15 (including 3 bonus tracks woth guest musicians singing English lyrics)

Favourite track: Triangle - this regularly gets repeated when I play the CD in the car

Tracks to skip: clicking in at 8 minutes and 59 seconds, Black Thunder is a bit long. 

Boostin' the rosters - a Blood Bowl update

A while back I bought a couple of Blood Bowl star players, and with a possible debut for my 'necromantic horrors' team this month, I've gone on and built these characters. 

So say hello to wicked werewolf, Wilhelm Chaney, and giant lizard player, Anqi Panqi. 

Anqi is a fearsome-looking dude in a dinosaur skull helmet. He was a fun build and will probably be a pain to paint.

Wilhelm is a very dynamic sculpt. I found affixing his tail difficult and I suspect it may come off if he gets knocked over in a game.

I do like how Wilhelm's stats include how many balls he's buried.

Meanwhile, Anqi keeps getting in trouble for saying stuff in post-match interviews. Probably lewd stuff if his awards for innuendos are any indication. But, then his name is Anqi Panqi, so what else could we really expect?

These resin models require superglue and are fiddly, resulting in a condition I call "superglue fingers". I'm hoping the coating will wear off by match day!

Time to light the lights for the return of The Muppet Show

The big Muppet news of 2026 so far has been a one episode revival of The Muppet Show. It seems to have been championed by Seth Rogan (executive producer) and featured Sabrina Carpenter as the show's special guest.

There is always a worry when a beloved franchise gets a reboot - as I said when The Muppets was released back in 2011. But Disney has done a reasonable job as caretakers of the Muppet legacy in the past 15 years, releasing lots of new projects although not much has really made an impact.

There was a follow up film, Muppets Most Wanted, that was okay. I didn't like it as much as the 2011 film. Disney tried two series featuring the main characters (The Muppets and then Muppets Now!) and also did a short series about the Muppet Show band, The Electric Mayhem and a Hallowe'en special - Muppets Haunted Mansion. None of the series grabbed me and Cathy and we didn't finish watching any of them. (Maybe, as Gonzo sings, we're going to go back there again, someday.) 

So, I watched The Muppet Show special with low expectations but high hopes - fan chatter before the release seemed positive and I'd seen a couple of clips that made me feel less apprehensive than I would have felt going in blind. And overall, it was a decent epsiode that vibed very much with the feel of the original show.

It was the usual chaos behind the scenes, lots of recognisable background characters, fourth wall breaking comments, a guest star who leaned in and took it seriously but didn't take herself seriously, and some fun musical numbers. The duet between Kermit and Sabrina Carpenter featuring lots of harmonising muppet fish and swamp critters felt very OG Muppet Show. Statler and Waldorf were back in their box. Rowlf was back on piano. Scooter was back backstage. It was all done very well.

I had a couple of minor quibbles. Bobo the bear shouldn't have been saying "It's good to be back" when he was a character first introduced on Muppets Tonight, not The Muppet Show. Pepe the Prawn was under-used and appeared in probably the weakest sketch of the show. I'm not sure what Beauregard was meant to be doing during the rats' musical number. 

However, those are really penickity issues. I'm quite happy that all I have are penickity issues as that's a sign of how much this one off special got right. Here's hoping it gains enough of an audience that Disney agree to doing more!

My January 2026 round-up

A very busy opening month of 2026, including a big birthday party for my mum who turneed 80, a work trip to Glasgow and the restart of political campaigning after a brief break over Christmas.

I was busy on the blog too, with a Blood Bowl match report, a Book of the Month and, for the first time, an Album of the Month post. I did a review of 2025, a sports round up and listed my cinema trips. I also marked Appreciate a Dragon day with a drove of dragons.

My Mum's 80th birthday party was on the final weekend of the month.  We had a loose theme of '80 years around the world' with a cake shaped like a hot air balloon.

A wall of photos, including a banner of family members spelling out 'Happy Birthday'.

Fred the hound was immortalised in icing next to the main cake we cut and served. His obvious misdemeanour attracted a lot of comments.

Mum with kids and grandkids...

At Mum's request we ran a short quiz. I was quizmaster. The most successful rounds were the picture rounds and the round where people had to guess the song title containing a country name.

My work trip to Glasgow was a day trip with an early morning flight from Bristol airport and a late return. I set my schedule to see if there and back in a day was doable. Turns out that yes it is doable, but it isn't desirable. I'm not going to rush to repeat it. 

We are now about 3 months away from the Senedd election and canvassing has started in earnest. I've been out talking to commuters at stations and knocking on doors.

I also went to the first Keep Grangetown Tidy litter pick of the year (photos by Fiona from KGT).

My top find was a dumped huge 80s style boombox, so I held it over my head like the famous scene in Say Anything.

On another weekend I supported the Friends of Grange Gardens 'Big Garden Birdwatch' on a wet Sunday morning. Despite the drizzle I saw goldfinches high up in the trees.

And I went to four football matches - three Cardiff Dracs games and a trip out to Cefn Cribwr as a random game at a new ground. That was just after New Year and they still had mince pies available with the half time cups of tea.