Loot haul: rAge 2016

Only 353 days until the next rAge expo! We are still riding a wave of post-rAge excitement (we keep finding new websites and videos that feature our cosplay characters), and this week we wanted to share one of the best parts of rAge with you: the loot!

Unlike the loot we find when we play Diablo III and Borderlands 2 together, we did not obtain this bunch of stuff by killing monsters and raiding promising-looking chests, but it still feels like we won the geek lottery.

Enjoy the pictures!

The full loot haul from rAge 2016

Let's start with busts: this awesome Joker bust is from Smallville Comics

What is Joker without Harley? We couldn't resist getting both (Smallville Comics)

This lovely Boba Fett bust was on sale for only R150. 

Back view of Boba Fett (it doubles as a money bank).

Smallville Comics had a deal where we got this guy for free along with our Joker and Harley bust purchase.

This Space Invaders money box makes a cute retro noise every time you insert a coin!

Bobbleheads! We cannot resist Star Wars merchandise. 

We finally have a Deadpool in the house!

These two were on sale at R100 each, but neither of us can remember the name of the vendor, unfortunately.

Raiden watches over the PS4

Scorpion joins in guarding our lounge

Another epic Smallville Comics deal saw us grabbing Thor 

Close-up of the worthy Asgardian

Iron Man joined Thor in our Marvel collection

This Superman figurine has a great action pose.

Cuteness overload: we could not resist a crocheted Cthulhu by Sew Leigh

And, of course, a crocheted Pokeball

Annalene could not wait to get her hands on a BB-8 handbag at the Dark Carnival stand

Dark Carnival also had Darth Vader ice trays - a must for South African geeks in summer

Modelling some of the new stuff

Marius' brother got this nice mousepad with a headphone purchase, and gave it to us

Biggest purchase of the weekend: Hitman collector's edition (from BT Games)

The art book and classic Hitman tie that came with the game

The collector's edition also came with a large, detailed statue of the silent assassin

Agent 47 is always ready

We each got a T-shirt at the Injustice 2 screening

Our new heroes join Batman and Wonderwoman for an epic superhero montage

The busts watch over our lounge, ominously perched next to a nuke from the Fallout collection.

The Star Wars corner is always growing and gaining new recruits.

We also got the Machi Koro Millionaire's Row expansion - one of our favourite board games.

Machi Koro with Harbour Expansion: easy to learn, fun to play

Today, we're posting the first of many (hopefully!) blog posts regarding our love for board games.

The focus on this post is on Machi Koro. We've had this game for a while (purchased at Exclusive Books), and quite enjoyed it. Since this is a card-based game, the sheer number of different cards can be quite daunting when you open the box the first time, but it's actually really straightforward and easy to grasp.

Without going into too much detail, you basically buy properties which generate income (determined by a dice roll), which you can then use to upgrade your properties and build your city, until the first player manages to build the specified four properties which win the game. Of course, things get interesting when you start earning income from other players, and taking away their hard-earned savings!

After a few play-throughs, we started feeling that we wanted to buy the Harbour Expansion for Machi Koro, which takes the number of players up from 4 to 5, adds more cards, and makes the gameplay more unpredictable by randomising and limiting the properties you are able to buy from the shop.

We looked out for the expansion everywhere, ordering it from at least 2 places, only to hear that every place in the entire South Africa was out of stock. So sad! Fortunately, Annalene's dad, who lives in London, decided to come visit us in Bloemfontein recently, and he agreed to bring us the expansion all the way from England.

The Harbour Expansion is quite a game changer, and is to be recommended for any Machi Koro lovers. We played it by ourselves first, and then invited some friends over for a board game evening, and they also loved it. When 5 people are playing, things can get quite hectic on the bank though, so Marius decided to handle the money and give everyone else a chance to build properties. This worked out quite well, as he was constantly handing out coins and giving change.

We have a few pictures from our own play-through, but unfortunately we were too busy having fun when we played this with friends, and we completely forgot to pause for photos.