Pimp my board game

I have always wanted to pimp my favourite board games, but I have always put it off because it is a very expensive endeavour. Well, I bought only one board game for myself this year, and am unlikely to buy any new ones any time soon, so I finally decided to go ahead.

I ordered Energy Box Ideal for Power Grid (£32.50) by Stonemaier Games. It is a set of six resource types (28 tokens each). This is a better deal than Power Grid Realistic Resources (only four types, fewer tokens and no box). I don't know why I didn't see this earlier. Actually, I'm surprised it is still in stock — this is a Kickstarter item from 2015. Fingers crossed.

In the original game, coal and oil are wooden cubes. They work, but they are not thematic.

I bought Puerto Rico Realistic Resources (£12.50) even though I do not have the game. I sort-of like the game, but I'm still waiting for an updated English version. The current version dates back to 2002. The artwork was okay back then, but it looks really plain now. It has not aged well, unlike many of its contemporaries.

In the original game, resources are plain colored octagonal wooden pieces.

I bought these two from Board Game Extras. Shipping is surprisingly cheap at £8.50 to Singapore. Order is pending. Let's see how it goes.

I also bought Virus Token Upgrade Set (US$39.99) containing four virius types (24 tokens each), Purple Mutation Virus Tokens (US$5.99) containing 12 tokens, and Player Pawn Upgrade Set (US$14.99) containing 7 player tokens. These are made by LITKO for Pandemic, if you have not guessed already.

In the original game, infections are represented by cubes. They do not look like virius at all. :lol:

There are player pawn sets for the expansions, but they are too expensive for me to buy at US$15 each. I almost never play with expansions anyway.

It costs US$16 to ship to Singapore, so I had it shipped to ezbuy for US$5. I estimate it costs another US$5 to ship to Singapore.

I'll love to get the Power Plant House Marker Set for Power Grid (six colors with 22 tokens each), but it costs a whopping US$69.99 — this is twice the price of the base game! Sorry, no. So, I'm still on the outlook for nice house tokens.

I'm also looking for custom trains for Ticket-to-Ride, but no luck so far. The trains from the Deluxe edition are very nice, but they are too big for the normal edition.

Worth it?

The upgraded components are very expensive — they cost around the same price as the base game itself. But I also find the use of colored wooden cubes to be extremely un-thematic. In fact, that turned me off more than one Euro-game. You are just collecting cubes of various colors and exchanging them for cubes of other colors.

Is it worth it? In the past, the answer was no, I would rather spend on games. But since I had more-or-less reached saturation point, I decided to upgrade the components of my favourite games. Even so, there is a limit to what I would spend.

51st week is the best opening week

The 51st week is the best week to open a blockbuster movie. First, it will gross the highest in the opening weekend. Then, the holiday season helps to maintain the momentum. Finally, there are two holidays that help to boost attendance.

Which is why Disney shifts the traditional Star Wars opening from May to Dec. Not that it helps TLJ, though.

The second weekend was disappointing. And it took in only $27.5 mil on Christmas day (about half of TFA).

Once upon a time, Star Wars looked so invincible. If Star Wars opens in the 51st week, no one else would dare to put their blockbuster there. But after the TLJ fiasco, I think the other studios are willing to take the chance. In fact, it would be great for them if Star Wars bombed and the audience flocked to watch their film instead.

For TLG, the Mouse altered the deal to take 65% of the ticket sales (vs the usual 55%) and theatres have to show it for four weeks. It is the real-life Empire. Ironical for it, the Resistance is fighting back.

The magic of Star Wars

I skipped all reviews and comments on Star Wars: The Last Jedi until RedLetterMedia released their review (Half in the Bag: The Last Last Jedi Review) four days after the official opening. I look forward to their review, not the movie. That's how far Star Wars has fallen for me. I have not and will not watch any more Star Wars until RLM says it's good-to-go. :lol:

Even before RLM released their review, it wasn't looking that good for TLJ.

Rotten Tomatoes (on 21/12)

Critics cannot stop gushing how great TLJ is, but the general public is not buying it.

All the critics who attended the premiere had to give it a positive rating (suspect at least A-). You can tell who attended because they uploaded their reviews on 12th Dec, on the very hour the review embargo was lifted. (View whores. :lol:)

I was disappointed my favourite reviewers sold out, but hey, I would be surprised if they burnt bridge over this — you don't want to upset the Mouse. Chris Stuckmann spoke highly of it and gave it a A-, but he wasn't oozing with genuine enthusiasm at all (watch his other videos where he really likes a show). Jeremy Jahns tried to sound as positive as he could and copped out by not giving it a rating.

Box Office Mojo

(TLJ number filled in on 23/12.)

TLJ is not doing as well as TFA. That is already very telling. Undoubtedly some people were already turned off by TFA that they decided to skip TLJ. But I would say word-of-mouth review of TLJ played a bigger role. This is not the sequel that some Star Wars fans are looking for, so they decided to skip it to retain their childhood memories.

The fanboys caught it on the opening weekend, so while the numbers were not stellar, they were still great. Not after that. Currently, it is raking in $20 mil a day compared to ~$40 mil for TFA. At this rate, the first week total will be around $300 mil.

What went wrong?

TLJ totally tramps on the original trilogy and the rules that it established. It does not feel like Star Wars. That's not how the force works. Luke Skywalker is out-of-character. Also, the setup, mysteries and cliffhanger in TFA? Sorry, you were trolled. You don't do that in a sequel. (It is possible some revelations would be overturned in the sequel, but by then, who cares?) These are two major turn-offs. We are not even considering issues within the film itself.

Disney's touch is ever more obvious. Being the flavour of the day, Disney has to add political-correctness, diversity, gender equality and cute animals to appeal to mass audience. And misplaced humor to lighten tense moments.

Also, Star Wars's universe is just too small, limiting the stories that can be told. Disney attempts to expand it by introducing a large cast (so that they can have spin-offs in the future). There is just no time to flesh out the characters.

Rian Johnson, the director, is credited as the sole writer. Is it true? It's hard to tell, since it's Disney; its expertise is creating a polished fiction for you to believe in. I believe he was given the key plots and elements and asked to piece together a coherent story.

Takeaway

Ignore reviews from premiere events. Or, be super super-critical.

This is peak Star Wars.

From Mike Stoklasa (of RLM) [21:00]: "That was the magic of Star Wars, now it's gone... flushing down the f*'ing toilet."

It has been a good run; so long, Amazon

Amazon has ended its free shipping service to Singapore. It has lasted from 7th June 2013 to 5th Dec 2017. The writing was on the wall when more and more items were ineligible for free shipping, and Amazon soft-launched its Prime service in Singapore in July.

So long, Amazon. :lol:

My order history:

I really went overboard in 2016 and bought a bunch of stuff that could not be shipped to Singapore...

Another way to look at Lego sets

There are three usual ways to look at a Lego set: its price, number of pieces and weight.

Many Lego sets now have very small pieces that inflate the piece count, that is why some people are using weight to judge a set's "substance". Except that the given weight is the total weight: plastics, instructions and packaging.

Let's look at Taj Mahal (10189): 5,922 pieces, 4,901.77g, 0.828 g/pc.

Data is from BrickLink. It is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate, but it should be close enough.

Even though this was the set with the most pieces (until the new UCS MF upstaged it), it was not as big as expected because it had many tiny pieces (anything less than 1x2 plate is tiny).

How about the two UCS Millennium Falcons?

10179: 5,180 pieces, 6,297.11g, 1.216 g/pc.

75192: 7,521 pieces, 7,184.10g, 0.955 g/pc.

Many of the new pieces are very small pieces.

The Tower Bridge (10214) is often criticized as overly inflated with small parts. Just exactly how many?

10214: 4,287 pieces, 3,541.45g, 0.826 g/pc.

About 2/3 are small parts. When 60% of a set are small parts, it will be perceived as overly inflated.

Let's look at a large City set, the Police Station (60047): 829 pieces, 1,315.46g, 1.587 g/pc.

It also has many small pieces, but it has many large pieces as well.

Many a times, a Lego set does not feel as "full" as its piece count would suggest. This is due to the heavy use of tiny pieces — they take up 20 - 30% of the piece count! They add to the detail, but not to the structure.

TLG on a roll; a straight-up re-release

TLG released the Taj Mahal (10189) in 2008 for US$300. It just announced a straight-up re-release, with one new element (a brick separator), for US$370.

Taj Mahal (10256), 5,923 pcs, US$369.99

This is the latest death knell for stubborn resellers who refuse to see the writing on the wall.

I wonder what TLG is up to? Despite its high price in the secondary market (US$3+k), this can't be a very high-demand set.

Some people suggest it is to fend off the clones. From what I observed, Lepin only made a one small run and it took some time to sell out. The demand was just not there.

I can think of two possibilities:

• This is a historical architectural building and there is a continuous trickle of interest in it outside the Lego world. This is why the Tower Bridge (10214) [2010] is still available. But then TLG discontinued Sydney Opera House (10234) [2013] — due to poor sales?
• TLG has decided to re-release its pre-2009 "great" sets to make them available to fans who missed them the first time round.

The MF hyperspaced out of OOP

It has finally happened — something Lego fans said was impossible — as it would devalue Lego collectivity and hence reduce its attractiveness. TLG has released an updated UCS Millennium Falcon after ten years.

Millennium Falcon (75192) [2017], 7,541 pcs, US$799.99

The old one:

Ultimate Collector's Millennium Falcon (10179) [2007], 5,197 pcs, US$499.99

The two sets are the same size: ~84 cm (L) x 56 cm (W) x 21 cm (H). They are huge! The new one is more detailed and has some interior sections at last.

What a difference ten years make.

In 2007, US$500 was way too much for "a piece of junk". It sold poorly and TLG had to discount it as much as 50% to clear stock. After it went OOP, its price ballooned up due to its scarcity and it became the poster child of Lego investing. Its price went well over US$3,000. Its price has taken a steep drop with the new set out. A MISB set is now around US$2,000, but is expected to drop much lower as time goes by — you can get a better set for US$800, after all. There are some brave souls who say the old one will retain its value just because it is the original, but come on, only the most dedicated completionist collector will buy it now. My guess is that it will drop to US$1,000 or less — and it'll be a long wait for a bite.

The new set sold out on day one. At US$800 MSRP. People are still on waiting list now. It is like the iPhone craze — they just had to have it.

Somehow, people (Westerners?) have a fascination with the Millennium Falcon. I don't know if it's due to the bad-boy, carefree or devil-may-care smuggler's image of Han Solo.

My thoughts:

• US$800 is a lot of money. Some people were overtaken by the craze and bought it even though they clearly could not afford it. Here's a simple means test: if you don't have US$800 disposable cash on hand, you can't afford it. When their sanity returns, they will be thinking, "what have I done?"
• Even if you have the money, do you have the space to display it? The large Lego sets are gorgeous, but they do not have any play value and they do not lend themselves to be dismantled and re-assembled into other stuff. They are ultimately display models.
• This is the clearest sign from TLG that there are no sacred cows, especially Star Wars sets, now that Disney is milking the franchise every year. For the longest time, people say the UCS MF will never be remade and Lego sets are an investment. Well, ask those people who paid over US$2,000 for their 10179 set.
• It is also clear that old (pre-2009) designs do not stand up well at all compared to modern designs. They are not as detailed, well-built and "curvy". The high-end Lego sets are getting more detailed every year, partially thanks to their higher price points. The best 2009 - 2012 designs were impressive in their time, but they are starting to look pale alongside the 2015+ ones.
• Lepin has not released its copy, but it should be pretty cheap (before shipping, anyway). The old one goes for 700 yuan (US$105). The new one will probably be 30% more expensive.

Handling multiple failures

I've always wondered why SMRT never seems to worry about flooding. It was just taken for granted it would never happen. Until Oct 7th. In the aftermath, we are finally told how storm water is handled. And I must say, it is pretty good. Keep in mind that the system was probably designed in the 80s and had worked without a single glitch for 30 years.

But it is not without its flaws. If there were a public review, it might have been caught.

There are 5 sensors and 3 pumps. Sensor 1 is the low-watermark. It stops all pumps once cleared. Sensor 2 activates pump 1, sensor 3 pump 2 and sensor 4 pump 3. Pump 3 is stand-by. If it were activated, it probably means one or both pumps failed to work. Sensor 5 is the high-watermark. It sends an alarm to the control center.

In this case, sensor 1 and 5 failed.

See the flaw now? If sensor 1 fails, the pumps will never activate. If sensor 5 fails, you don't get a notification. And it is the most likely to fail because it is the least tested.

The storm water pit could hold 5,000 m^3 of water. The estimated rainfall that day was 640 m^3. Thus the water had been accumulating for some time.

First, how do we lower the chance of failure with the existing infrastructure?

Easy, we use data from all five sensors. If sensors 2 to 4 are working normally, it would be an anomaly if sensor 1 is clear but sensor 2 is not. In computer programs, we often go to a safe-state, e.g. ignore it, for such cases. But physical sensors can fail, and this has to be taken into account.

Second, how to even out the usage? Sensors 4 and 5 are seldom used, together with pump 3. It is easy to rotate pumps, but not sensors, since they are hard-wired in place.

Third, what if everything failed. How can we detect it? This can be re-phrased. How can we check remotely that the sensors and pumps are working? Again, it is difficult to check that the sensors are working, but it is easy to check that the pumps are working by adding a sensor at the outlet to the external drain and turning on one pump at a time.

I don't have all the answers now, but if I'm paid a million a year, I'm sure I can think of something. ;-)

Blade Runner 2049

Here's my one-line summary: this movie is good, but it will not make money. There is little action, is slow-paced, and the philosophical aspects will either bore most people or fly over their head.

This film is breaking my long-standing rule to not watch sequels, especially ones separated by decades. :-P (Of course, I watched a couple of reviews to make sure it is of certain quality first.)

As someone who does not like the first movie — I'll say it is a flawed masterpiece — this one works. It does everything right that the first movie did not.

Blade Runner (1982) is a sci-fi dystopian cyberpunk detective noir movie. It has great visuals that holds up even today, but it has a weak story. There is no mystery and Deckard, the protagonist, does not do any detective work. In this movie, K does. He has a keen sense of observation, he investigates, follows the leads and connects the dots.

Except that the movie is really long (163 mins), overly loud at times and sometimes slow. But I attribute that to modern films having fast tempo and after you are used to it, you find older movies a drag. This movie gives you time to soak in the gorgeous sights.

I like especially how it does Ghost in the Shell better than Ghost in the Shell (1995). What does it mean to have a soul? That is central to GitS and only incidental in Blade Runner, but this movie does it better.

Not a spoiler: K discovers the answer for himself, as well as his relationship to others. It is beautiful.

Spoilers (read after watching the film, trust me):

Blade Runner 2049 is not for everyone. If you like the original, or you think it is good-but-flawed, or you like GitS, you will like this. But you don't have to watch the original to enjoy this. It stands on its own. However, if you like explosions, action-adventure, happy-ending, everything spelt out or every loose-end tied up, this is not the movie you are looking for.

I bought the Blade Runner (5-disc DVD Ultimate Collector's Edition) [2007] for US$54.99. I had only watched the Final Cut (disc 1). I have no intention of buying the blu-ray. I'm considering buying the blu-ray for this movie. That's my seal of approval.

Update: I just found that disc 1 of my Blade Runner box set is spoilt. :cry: Oh well, should I replace it?

Breaking the petrol cartel

Sinopec won a second site in Singapore, and rumors are that Shell will release 10 to 15 stations to them.

Here's what Sinopec needs to do to send a shockwave: offer 20% lower prices upfront.

Actually, this is not as shocking as it seems. The local petrol companies maintain high pump prices, but they routinely give rewards that mount to 15 - 22% discount.

Next step is to implement a tiered loyalty system. The average mileage is 20k km, if the average FC is 11 km/L, it works out to be 1.818T per year.

If a car pumps 200L of petrol in 3 months, it gets an additional 1.5%. This is very easy to meet. 400L (average), 3%. 600L, 6%. 800L (only cab and Uber can meet this), 9%.

See, easy.

My blu-ray collection

Anime

I bought most of the blu-rays from Amazon Japan. Blu-rays usually have a 20% discount.

I have quite a bit more Studio Ghibli shows on DVDs. Sadly, most of their early R2J DVDs are trash today; they are optimized for CRT displays. For blu-rays, partially due to the expense, I only buy the ones that I like. You can guess which ones. :lol:

I missed the Miyazaki Hayao Complete Box/Works when it came out. Even if I did not, I would probably skip it as it is very expensive and I only want 1/4 of the shows inside.

Missing on the list is The Irresponsible Captain Tylor box set (1993), at a whopping 40,132 yen (MSRP 54,000 yen). I have four versions of the DVD box sets (I really like this show), including the ultra-expensive remastered one from Japan that is split up into three boxes — each one is US$200, IIRC :-O — and I misplaced one disc, argh! The blu-ray is an upscale of that.

Animation

Missing: Cars (2006). Disney wants US$25 for it. Let me think about it. :lol:

Like Studio Ghibli shows, I'll only get my favourite Pixar films — I already have most of them on DVDs and do not want to double-dip. My list: Cars, Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo and Ratatouille. At US$25 a disc, I'll just buy the first one. US$20, maybe two.

Chinese

I would love to get Millionaires' Express (1986) too, except that the blu-ray version is a 90-mins cut instead of the original 101-mins running time. I've covered this before; the best version to get is the Dragon Dynasty's R1 DVD.

There are a couple of other shows I'm interested in, but they are only available on DVD. (In some cases, they have long been discontinued.)

Only a handful of Hong Kong movies stand up to the test of time.

Classics

Missing: Stagecoach (1939). It is released by Criterion and is very expensive at US$27.99. It is also not fully restored.

Also absent is Time Machine (1960). The cover makes me pause. The DVD cover is so much more classic. The video could be better as well.

English

Missing are Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and Ghost in the Shell (2017). They are in the pipeline.

What about Indiana Jones and Star Wars?

I'll buy Indiana Jones when it is transferred properly. For Star Wars, only if the original non-special editions (as seen in theatre) are released.

Amazon blu-ray pricing tier

From cursory browsing of blu-rays on Amazon, it seems that they fall into tiers: US$25, US$20, US$15, US$10.

Note that this applies to vanilla movie blu-rays. 3D, combo, special editions, non-mainstream studios, documentaries may cost more.

Only the newest top blockbusters and popular Disney films can command US$25. That extra US$5 is the "disney tax". Most new shows and blockbusters command US$20.

After some time, the show will drop to US$15. Older or unpopular shows end up at US$10 or less.

We can infer two things here.

First, Amazon does dynamic pricing — it sets the price based on demand. It is pretty simple. Keep the price if there is demand. Else lower the price slowly. If there is high demand again (relative to stock level?), then raise the price.

Sometimes Amazon will drop price sharply. It can last from a few hours to a few days. I think this is usually due to price-matching. Sometimes it price-matches against its own low-volume third-party seller who lists at an ultra-low price. (People have gotten cheap lego this way before.)

Second, it tells us the popularity of the shows. It is clear that newer and popular shows are priced higher. There are a few older shows that still command US$15, but most are US$10 or less.

Buying blu-rays

I'm on a slow quest to buy blu-rays of the shows that I like. My criteria is simple: it must be in my "top n shows of all times" and is a significant upgrade from the DVD. I have maybe ~150 shows on DVD. When my quest completes, I hope to have around 30 shows. (Note that one show may have multiple discs.)

Buying blu-rays now? Isn't that kind of late? Ultra HD blu-rays are just out. :lol:

Well, I won't be buying Ultra HD blu-rays until they can be copied, which at this point, seems unlikely to happen for another few years. At this point, most sources are only 2K, so I doubt they really have more details than blu-ray. It is an additional expense to remaster video at 4K, and studios may never recoup that cost.

Another almost-requisite is a large display. It is said to make a difference only at 65" or larger. I have no plans to get a new display until my current 40" one dies — which will take another 3 - 5 years. :-P

For most part, I think blu-ray is sufficient. In fact, rewatching some of my old DVDs, I find them mostly okay too — especially the ones that are digitally transferred and/or remastered. I'm rather surprised at myself. I no longer seek the best video quality. Good enough is enough. :lol:

Apparently many people thought so too. Even after a decade, blu-ray (first released in Jun 2006) is a fraction of DVD sales — 15% or so. Ultra HD blu-ray will be even more of a niche. And sales of physical media is declining as people take to streaming.

Streaming is not good enough for me though. The bitrate used is just too low to preserve all the details — 15 Mbps vs 50+ Mbps for Ultra HD blu-ray. The so-called 4K encodes do not have 4K worth of resolution. :lol:

Why I won't be buying the Matrix blu-ray

Blu-ray rip

The Wachowski Brothers tinted the first movie to match the colors of its two sequels: green in the Matrix and blue in the real world. They went way overboard with the green and the contrast.

1999 DVD

The original 1999 DVD is the one with the original color. The Matrix scenes are brownish. I prefer it for the most part.

Newer is not always better as directors / studios tweak the colors and DVNR. Grain-free always look better initially, but it is very difficult to remove grain without losing some details too.