kids

Funko Pop! Sesame Street Vinyl Figures Unboxing

If you read this blog with any sort of frequency, you know that I LOVE Sesame Street.  (You can read my other Sesame Street Posts here) So I was pretty darn excited when Funko sent me a bunch of their new Sesame Street Pop! vinyl figures.   I, along with everyone else in the world, love the Pop! figures (I currently have a Funko Pop! Phillie Phanatic on my desk at Joule HQ), and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on these!

They came yesterday afternoon, so today I did my first unboxing video!  Check it out!

The Sesame Street figures will be available on May 25, 2015 . You can order them at this (affiliate) link:
Funko Pop! Sesame Street Figures at Amazon

Parenting Geekly’s PAX Prime 2014 wrap up.

Parenting Geekly’s PAX Prime 2014 wrap up.

Our PAX experience was a bit abbreviated this year.  We missed out on our chance to purchase tickets (they were sold out within 25 minutes!) and due to the break I took from blogging, I didn’t even bother applying for a press badge this time.

We did wind up getting two badges for Sunday and two for Monday. Super Dad and Nate went on Sunday (when the gaming floor remained open until midnight), and SD and I did Monday (when the whole thing closed up at 7, way closer to my bedtime). Due to a raging headache, I didn’t even make to the convention center until about one in the afternoon.  So it was kind of a PAX Fail this year.  I buzzed around the expo halls and tried to take in as much as possible, and so now I present to you:

Parenting Geekly’s very brief PAX Prime 2014 Wrap Up:

Highlights for the kiddos:

Cartoon Network Studios has the Adventure Time Game Wizard coming out in time for the holidays. Cartoon Network has partnered with Pixel Press and this game will be based on the same technology as Pixel Press Floors, a game in which you design a platformer by drawing it. This could be a really cool licensing partnership that helps introduce kids to game design principles. I’m excited to check this one out with the kids once it’s available.

On Monday I played Shadowrun: Crossfire, a cooperative deck building game from Catalyst Games.  As with many modern tabletop games, there was a bit of a learning curve, but it was fun and I *loved* the cooperative aspect.  It reminded me  of Upper Deck Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game, where the players are essentially playing against the board.  We sometimes play the Shadowrun RPG, so it was fun to see that world in a tabletop environment.  This one is probably well suited for teens and up.

Nathan had a lot of fun playing a BattleTech expansion called Alpha Strike.  It was a quicker, faster
to get started version of the main game.  Combat is simplified and it was a great introduction to the popular miniatures game for a young teenager.

Super Smash Bros. comes out for the 3DS in early October and for the WiiU during the holiday season.  Nate spent a lot of time in the console gaming room playing older versions of Super Smash Bros. for the N64 and the Gamecube.  This was one the big highlights of his PAX experience.


Sega was pushing their new Sonic BOOM series, which will feature the speedy hedgehog and his friends in a television show and in games for Nintendo.  I am long time Sonic fan, and giddily ran up to have my picture taken with him. He doesn’t seem as impressed as I was.

While the line to demo the game was too crazy long for me to wait in, we are pretty excited about Borderlands the Pre-Sequel.  I even got up close and personal with Handsome Jack. Definitely not for the little kids, but the Borderlands franchise is one of Nate’s favorites. We also picked up some cool Civilization merch while at the 2K booth.

We spent a lot of time, as we do each year, in the retro arcade.  They have lots of pinball and retro arcade games, all free to play.  It’s great fun for the adults and it’s a great place to take kids who are bored of the expo hall. Thanks to Ground Kontrol, one of our favorite spots in Portland, for hosting!

I’ve been hearing a lot about Habitat recently.  From the game’s Steam Page:

“Habitat is a successfully funded Kickstarter game from indie developer 4gency. It is a real-time, physics-driven orbital strategy game where you build, fly, and fight with the unique space stations that you create out of space debris orbiting earth. In its simplest terms it is a strategic space survival game.”

Our friends who have played have raved about it and reviews are all pretty positive.  What really got me interested though, was 4gency founder Charles Cox’s incredible enthusiasm.  For me, this is what PAX is all about.  I really enjoy learning about new games from Indie game developers.  I plan on purchasing a copy of Habitat this weekend, you can expect a full review soon.

*Amazon links are affiliate links, which means that if you buy from that link I make a few cents (literally cents, but every little bit helps!).  All other links are just there so you can check out some of the things I saw.

Still Time for Young Space Geeks to Submit a question!

I’m leaving for NASA’s Johnson Space Centerearly on Monday morning.  I will take questions right up until I can’t anymore. I would guess that I will have computer/internet access during any Q&A’s we have, but I’d say if you want your child’s question to be considered, Monday night would be a good cutoff.  That’s when I’ll make sure that I have all of the questions available to me on my mobile device.

I’ll be meeting astronauts, flight directors, trainers and managers.  If your kid, teen (or you if it’s a good one!) has a question about NASA or space submit it in the comments section below. Make sure to leave your child’s first name, age and city.

I can’t guarantee that I’ll get to ask your child’s question, but I will do my best!

For more info on my upcoming NASA trip read my original article here.

Be sure to follow @ParentingGeekly on Twitter during the tweetup.  I’ll be using the #NASATweetup hastag!

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