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A Player’s Shameless Guide to Breaking Down Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves on Home Video

We take a look at which edition of the home video release of Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is worth picking up and the verdict is….

Paramount Pictures and eOne
For the Movie Review,
please visit our original post here.

Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is coming to home video this week! Although what’s offered as bonus content does not differ from the streaming version, I am glad to have a release to hold in my hands. Although I was hoping a store exclusive can come with added goodies, alas the only thing offered (for now) is the steelbook. The case presents the ampersand dragon with the movie cast presented in silhouette and the interior is a gorgeous recreation of the dungeon scene from the film like it was a Mondo art print.

And my appreciation for this film got bumped up a notch. The first segment, “From Dice to Dragons: Honouring the Lore,” finally reveals the details and what kind of love writer-directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley put in to adapt the game to screen. Their interview also includes explaining why they went with a pudgy dragon rather than a sleek one. Strangely, they didn’t acknowledge Gary Gygax or the TSR days. Unless it passed by fast, I would’ve liked to hear that Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro did not own and manage the property back then.

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Equilibrium Urban’s Not So Convention Tour!

$Equilibrium Urban\'s Product Display$ By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Whether you are a college student or just in need of a new carry all bag (backpack or messenger-style), Equilibrium USG has a product you can customize. You can have specific types of smaller pouches to store items in. This company hits all major comic book conventions (well, those that are managing to continue during this medical crisis) and I was curious why cater to a specific audience? Why don’t they have a product to sell in a regular store? The reason is that they can’t decide on how much stock to keep. They take orders to build on demand. To note, due to the current global shutdown, their output has slowed until the COVID-19 cases are in control.

With pop culture conventions more or less year-round, it’s inevitable you will see this company showing off their product at a nearby show. I’m thinking of adding to what I currently have. While I’m waiting on last year’s Black Friday sale to arrive (it can take up to eight months, depending on workload, & coronavirus fears in Asian manufacturing notwithstanding), I’m already considering an upgrade.

Unless I missed a tutorial, you can’t carry the Assault Panzer style completely along its longer (horizontal than vertical) axis. The Recon Prime is closer to the traditional vertical axis messenger bag design, but not by much. I have a pdf where they were once advertised as messenger bags, but after some weeks of use it feels more like a backpack. I might as well turn it into a proper one. I just need to decide on which harness is best for me, and I did not want to mail order blind.

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[Electric Bungalow] Field Testing QuietOn’s Noise Cancelling Technology

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

Many months ago, I chanced upon an IndieGoGo campaign about QuietOn, a pair of earplugs that operate almost like a pair of Bose noise-canceling headphones. By using active noise cancellation, a fair amount of low-frequency sounds can be filtered out with this sound blocker. This Finnish re-invention looks at the sounds bouncing within the ear canal and creates additional filters for quietness.

After a few weeks of my own testing in random environments, these plugs do work as advertised. They are described to effectively block sound when filtered through walls. For example, those sounds of jet engines from far away, the loud neighbours from the next room in a hotel and elephant stampede in an apartment one level up are nonexistent. I have yet to try sleeping next to an air conditioner and when the noises are not blaring directly at you, they function as intended. Snoring beasts are difficult to prevent, so my quest continues lest I have that suitcase Newt Scamander from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them carries to stuff those monsters into.

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