Egmont Badges & Keyrings

When that film came out in 95 a few items hit the shelves, admittedly these shelves seemed to be well hidden from mortal eyes. Luckily for me I stumbled across these badges & keyrings when I was in Brighton. Now before you ask, they where not in the comic shops in the town but in one of the shops that seem to sell a wide range of items (the shops up Sydney Street).

I looked at the display which also had Batman & Superman equivalents and found 11 out of the 12 that would make the Dredd set. Obviously I bought them all and that my fellow fans was in 1995. It has taken me all this time to get my hands on the missing one, this happened last week on ebay. This is the Dredd badge keyring, so I can now rest easy!

The badges come on a piece of black plastic that helps them to be easily displayed in the shop (I have now bought similar displays for these that also hold the blister packs of miniatures). They are made of metal and they seem to have the black details painted on, as parts have started to crack and flake. Both sets are the same size as each other as well. Also on the back it mentions The Egmont Foundation, the year and that they were made in England.

Lets start off with the badges -

Now for the keyrings and we'll start with the one that has taken 15 years to find.

Oh! before I get told off, just so you can get an idea of their size, here is a picture with two items next to a 50p.

 

Look forward to next weeks item or items!

Children's Dredd Mask

This is another ebay find, which I bought from an American seller a few years ago. Once again I had never heard of the item and it was only with my constant searching that I stumbled upon it. Also since buying it I have only seen one more available to buy online.

I feel that this is the sort of item that a few people would buy just for the laughs. I mean £200+ is out of most people's price range for a helmet (the cost of the Termight one), so something like this would quench most fans thirst. I think mine was £15 and that included P&P, which isn't too bad.

Just for display purposes I have placed it on the glass head that we have in the bathroom (my beret normally resides upon this). Sadly it's the movie version but it's better than nothing and it came out with (sarcasm mode enabled) all those other movie goodies. It does have a crease just under the left eye and down towards the nose, strangely the other mask I saw also had a crease in the same place. Who knows, it might be from a defective supply!

It was attatched to a display card by two bits of plastic but after some careful moves I managed to take that off without any damage.

On the reverse it has simple instructions, how to care for the mask and production notes.

Here is the mask from all angles.

Now if only Tharg would produce something like this, then there would be a lot of happy kids and parents! I could just see a range of Judge masks from around the world, or even all the ABC Warriors!!!

Judge Dredd - The Role-Playing Game

This is the second game in the Dredd series, which came out in 1985, the box contains the following -

Judge's Manual
Game Master's Book
Cut-Out Character Sheet
2 Play Sheets
A Set Of Polyhedral Dice

I actually bought this when it came out and due to never playing the game because there was no body else to do so with in my unit, it's still in quite good nick. I even glued the playing characters in anticipation to playing the bloody thing! Such was the life of a squaddie.....

The Box itself

The lid is quite eyecatching, as it portrays 4 Judges on Lawmasters heading towards the viewer. Dredd's leading the charge and it looks like it could be Anderson on the far right. Let's not talk about what is happening to Dredd's chain??? The Judge Badge that takes the place of the 'U' in Judge is like an embossed piece, as it stands out so well (especially with the gold effect) and this is also on all 4 sides of the lid, on the base it's just yellow. The actual artwork on the lid is by Terry Oakes and on the base it's by  Brian Bolland, which shows the actual contents.

Judge's Manual

The cover to this black book has the Judge's badge on the front (as you can see). This has 8 parts to it and they are as follows -
Introduction, The Making of a Judge, Making an arrest, Other actions, On patrol, Experienced Judges, A Judge's guide to MC-1 & A glossary of MC-1 slang

All these sections are well thought out and are packed with information and art from some of the early (obviously) and best artists in 2000AD's history. This is the complete credit list of the droids - Brian Bolland, Steve Dillon, Brett Ewins, Carlos Ezquerra, Dave Gibbons, Ian Gibson, Cam Kennedy, Mike McMahon, Kim Raymond, Cliff Robinson, Robin Smith, Ron Smith & Colin Wilson.
You don't need to be a gamer to enjoy this book, as apart from all the game rules there is quite a lot of Mega-City One info in here that will keep the average fan happy.

Game Master's Book

This book has the box illustration as it's cover and inside there are the following sections -
Introduction, Getting started (Firefight - On a hot summer's night), Epanding the adventure, Perps & Crimes, Sectors & City blocks, People, Places & Products, Other data, The ultimate crime of Tony Thermo & Index
Again, this is full of gamer info but there is still enough about the City and Judges to keep the average fan happy and the art does bring back some happy memories.

Cut-Out Character Sheet

Front

Back

Play Sheets

This is really just a double sided play sheet. On one side you have the approach to the Buddy Rich Tunnel & a flyover and on the other, you have the Higgins' Shuggy Hall. These open out into an A2 playing area.

Buddy Rich Tunnel & Flyover

The tunnel is on the left and the flyover, the right (obviously).

Higgins's Shuggy Hall

All in all a great product (I can't vouch for the playing of it though) and worth getting on ebay, as there are always a few on sale, at a reasonable price!

Judge Dredd - The Game Of Crime-Fighting In Mega-City One.

This is the first in the Dredd Role-Playing range from Games Workshop which came out in 1982 and it contains the following items -

Playing Board x 2
Rules Booklet
Umpty Candy Card Album
Judge Cards x 6
Perp Cards x 28
Crime Cards x 28
Sector Cards x 21
Action Cards x 54
Playing Pieces & Die

This was an ebay buy as I wasn't a collector at the time, plus I was just leaving school around this period and preparing to join the forces, so I had other things on my mind!

The box itself

The box lid has Dredd surrounded by his earliest foes, obviously and it's drawn by Brian Bolland. The base shows the game set up for play with the contents list and also a small write up on the game. It mentions that the age range is from 8 to adult with 2-6 players, it also adds that the playing time is between 1-2 hours.

Playing Board

The playing board comes in two pieces, that slide together and show 28 sectors from Mega-City One. These include Palais De Boing, Justice Department Armoury, Alien Zoo, Aggro Dome, Grand Hall of Justice, Resyk & the Academy of Law amongst others. The artwork on the gaming area is by Ian Gibson.

Rules Booklet

This booklet tells you everything you need to play the game under numerous headings - Equipment, Preparation, Starting the game, The game turn, Movement round, Arrest round, Replenishing cards, End of game & Winner.
It also has a section called Action cards - Special notes and this goes into some detail about how to use certain cards during the game.

Umpty Candy Card Album

This takes no part in the game but gives background information on the Sectors, Crimes & Perps and it also shows the combat values of the Crimes & Perps.

Judge Cards

These cards identify the players to their playing pieces.
The game start card identifies the player who will move first in that game turn.

Perp Cards

There are 28 of these cards, ranging from level 1 Gestapo Bob Harris to level 10 Judge Death. 

Crime Cards

There are also 28 of these cards, which range from 1 to 6 depending on the seriousness of the crime in question. For instance littering is 1 whilst murder is 6.

Sector Cards

There are 21 of these cards and they show all the sectors on the board except the Starting Sectors (Grand Hall of Justice, Academy of Law, City Hall, Justice Department Armoury, West 17 Test Labs & the Spaceport) and the Justice Department Hospital.

Action Cards

There are 54 of these cards and they depict various actions and items of equipment that effect the Judges during the course of the game.

I would put a picture up of the playing pieces but seeing as they are not even Judge shaped I won't bother, they are just handbell shaped pieces of plastic. At least the Rogue Trooper game had Rogue shaped playing pieces, more of that to come in the future.

Also included in the box is a flyer for 2000AD

The last thing I will say on this game is that there are always some on ebay and for quite reasonable prices.

Judge Minty Sign

I'm sure you all know about this short film that is currently in production! Well if you visit the Director's blog you will see this sign, along with his notes about the whole project up to now. Obviously you'll look at that blog after you've finished here but before you do anything else you MUST look at the following teaser trailer for this film, it's on youtube if you want to see it a lot bigger. Remember it's a work in progress, so nothing is finished yet!

Anyway after a superb weekends filming in the Cursed Earth, imagine my surprise when this sign fell into my car as we left the location and headed to our homes! Before you ask, I did have permission and I've even been in touch with crew members since, just to verify it as I still can't believe it!

I'm sure that you all know the story about Judge Minty and what became of this lawman. Well as he enters the Cursed Earth he passes this ominous sign that tells him everything he needs to know about what it will be like in his new life.

Now I can't show you any pictures from the shoot just gone that incorporate the sign, as that would spoil things but I can show you some close ups of the sign and where it lives now.

Now because of the inclement weather on the last shoot, I've had the sign in the conservatory drying out. Here's my son holding it just outside there, just to give you an idea of the size of it, look how happy he is! By the way it's taller than that in the film, as you will find out when you read on.

I asked it's creator Daniel Carey-George of Custom Creations how he went about building this prop and who came up with the idea!

"Basically, I can't remember who's idea the sign was, I think mine, as it was one of the very first things I made for Minty, and possibly before the script was finished- Steve would know for sure, it was about 3 years ago!

The helmet was the very first one I cast up for Minty, so I knew it would probably not be worth using as a finished piece. Instead I weathered it , cut a hole in the top and stuck it over a length of plastic pipe painted up to look metal. Its fiberglass, painted in cellulose with various acrylic washes and highlights.

Funnily enough, the wood used in the sign is actually from the time a container of wood went overboard on the East Coast, and the wood washed up on the beach. It was brand new pine but smashed up, so some of the distressing was done by nature, and I used wood dye and paint for the rest. Its held on to the pole by plastic clips at the back.

I wasn't sure about the final height needed so a long cardboard tube was used to enable me to easily adjust it on site, and I made up a wooden stand for it with a very shallow base to let me rig it in any spot without needing too much extra work to hide the supports.

It was made pretty quickly and became a symbol of the Minty project, and was tweaked a week or so before the shoot with some extra details such as debris at the bottom and some badges hanging from it."

As for the skull.

"Its a cheapo medical skull from ebay. Its supposed to be adult size but really its more female/ teenager/small.

Anyway, I covered it in a light coating of latex (mixed with a bit of tissue paper) over some of the features, and around the jaw. When this dried I removed the springs, etc holding the jaw on, so the jaw just flapped about on the tissue paper/latex mix. I then used a 'mess' of wood stain over the lot."
 
Here is a series of close-ups of the helmet and skull to give you an idea of the detail that Daniel put into it.
 



I'm sure you'll all agree that it looks superb and show you just how good Daniel's work is. Lastly we have a picture showing it's new home, in the cellar.
Wait till the electric/gas bod comes round next time to read the meter!