I like Lego, I grew with these toys. So I like to watch the realisation made by the Lego community. In the Ludica fair a large space was dedicated to Lego games. And to a Lego city. Summing Lego brick after Lego brick, Lego set after Lego set, you can obtain this, a continuous table with lots of little scenes and details. With a railway and a monorail added.

Some realisation have a less gaming aspect, like these pieces inspired by Star Wars vehicles. Fictional reality deconstructed in Lego bricks.

In the Ludica Model pavilion there was an area where you could freely play with Lego and buy it in weight. A very popular place for children. While in the Ludica Bimbi pavilion there was a really huge mosaic with the image of the Colosseum. People could built it by sector using Lego bricks having a sector map for guide. Up with Lego community!

In Ludica Roma there were wargamers and modellers, so you could view a lot of beautiful miniatures.

A multicoloured scenario from an A La Guerre game.

Your miniature collection can become really huge after a lot of years playing wargame. Piles of 15mm for an 1:1 fight between Gauls and Romans along a small river.

Bigger miniatures and greater painters than wargame world. That Zues is awesome. I’m thinking about a game with this Zeus in the upcoming Of Gods And Mortals…

More models museum worthy.

A scene set in the Lybian desert, with Folgore paratroopers. My mobile camera is not so great but the weird yellow lights in the display case destroyed the fine paintwork. White lamps for another time, guys?

A customised Warhammer 40k squad. I don’t think that these miniatures are manufactured by GW. They are really huge and majestic.

A Dust diorama with a Jagpanzer. I have to buy something made by this Paolo Parente guy…

There were a lot of railway modelling dioramas. I remember them in their specialised fairs. Now I want to show you only this beautiful view of Porta San Paolo station. Every day I pass close to there to go to work. It serves the line for Ostia, the waterfront of Rome. It would be perfect is the lights in the platform were made by leds. Maybe this scene was built a lot of time ago. More on this station here

A display were made about the development of the Wings of War (now Wings of Glory) boardgame. It was very interesting to see as an idea was developed from the first rough pieces of paper to the final release with aeroplanes miniatures, through small sets for playtesting and prototypes of the game elements.

Ludica Roma 2012 reboot. This time we had no snow to stop us. Do you remember the original Ludica 2012 in February? We were lost in the fair with scarce public to view us. This time the weather was good.

The convention was located in three pavilions: Model (boardgame, wargame, radio controlled modelling, railway modelling, live role play, videogames), Softair (softair, western & country zone (!), refreshment area), Bimbi (Lego, the reign of children). This one in the photo is the Model pavilion. If you think that there were not so many people around is because the structure is huge: almost 15000 people were in the fair during three days. Well, the first day there were only 2000 people, it was Friday and it is not a good day to do something like this.

This was part of the area for wargame clubs. Some displays and demonstration games were set up by local wargame clubs. A large area was dedicated to Tana dei Goblin and Reindeers clubs for their boardgame demonstration tables. New boardgames from Essen fair were available to try them. A great work from the people who created the GiocaRoma convention. That glorious event is now merged with Ludica.

A large skirmish game about Abissinia war. In the background some elements of the 501° Legion “the fist of Vader”.

The small detachment of wargame vendors. Edizioni Chillemi is specialised in military matters, Aster Wargame is a supplier of bases, hexagons, 10mm TB Line miniatures and painting service. The high cost of stands kept away other specialised vendors. Our world runs on small amounts of money and this structure is absolutely no cheap. It is not a fault of the organisers, it is a fault of the fair structure administrators. However there were other vendors in the modelling area, with 57mm miniatures and this kind of stuff.

The large spaces were good for radio controlled modelling and this kind of mobile models. Outside the pavilion there was a track for cars. Inside a swimming pool was available for ships.

One of the strangest forms of radio controlled modelling were that about earth-moving models. Pretty dirty indeed. Don’t try this at home. Especially if you live in an apartment.

Amy Pond was in the fair? Maybe… She was trying historic fencing movements. Some combats were done using a buckler too.

Another real fight area. But with gum swords. Girls are very competitive, more than boys.

A paintball rifle range. It reminds me something from USA but made with not so real guns. In Italy firearms are almost prohibited. There were three arenas, one for paintball, one for softair, one for lasergame. The lasergame stand assistant were gorgeous.

The Ludica Bimbi pavilion was where children can live in the wild. Lots of games and activities for 0-10 years children. The fair public was composed for the most by families with children. So we had generic visitors even for other areas. An opportunity to spread the game and modelling culture to people. Keep attention to wild children indeed.

The first one was Gundam, a military giant robot utilised as a tank with legs and arms. Then Patlabor showed a world where giant robots were manned vehicles for a lot of purposes. They could be used in industry as special vehicles for constructions or as earthmover, for example. Moreover they had a police and military utilisation. Patlabor is composed by the words “patrol” (in the stories we have a police unit as main characters) and “labour”. They aren’t heroic metal divinities but simple everyday vehicles. All this only in manga and anime of course.

Then someone, Suidobashi Heavy Industries – in Patlabor we had Shinohara Heavy Industries -, build in 2012 a real size marching robot in the Patlabor style. It is called Kuratas and it is sold only for almost one million euros. Available in different customisations. It is a toy for rich geeks, but it is even a demonstration that a manned giant robot can be produced for specific purposes. Military ones too.

A break from Lucca C&G reports. They will follow next week. Now is the time of Ludica Roma convention! I’m leaving with Andrea “Ganesha Games” Sfiligoi for a three days duty in a huge fair full of wargames, boardgames, videogames and more. A full report here after I will have ended the Lucca series.
See you in Ludica!

What is an action figure? Only some resin parts, glued and painted…

Well, the result is not so simple, these are works of art.

In this post I collected the best of sexy action figures that I saw at the fair. I am a male, so I fell in love with weapons and girls…

The next action figures are less sexy. Because this is porn, sold as an item for anoraks. I don’t think that something like this can easily find a place on all desks or bookshelves. And inside a comic fair? Well, if some manga series support male homosexuality, if Fifty Shades of Grey has sold 60 million copies worldwide and females think about it as literature, maybe these statuettes are not so strange here. So these sculptures are not things for perverts, are only a matter of healthy sex urge. Only some resin parts, glued and painted, do you remember?

Heroic samurai robots are made in Go Nagai. The sad thing is that he revise in perpetuity his fictional world cast and sometimes he don’t end the series, so you cannot understand the full story. Maybe because there isn’t a real story but only an accumulation of stories based on stock characters.

Mazinger (Majingā) family. Sometimes almost the same names for slightly different characters and stories. I don’t care so much about this, because I remember when I was a child watching these cartoons. Amazing!

An UFO Robot Grendizer diorama. Very dynamic. The tag is not an abstract number, it is the cost in euros.

UFO Robot Grendizer with some its flight modules. This was chronologically the first giant robot on television in Italy. At that times it was a revolution in children entertainment. Grendizer gadgets were a must have. I increased my social status among other children because I owned a Grendizer official t-shirt.

A version of the Mazinger robot. Those bat or hellish wings gives a great touch to the character.

A photo of our Samurai Robots Battle Royale scenario. Andrea is selling some t-shirts with the cover of the rules. Ask him for sizes and price.

A drink with Go Nagai’s robots customised cans: giant robots for some sort of exotic beverage… Don’t drink them for your safety, just collect them…

I like mechas, do you remember?

This is a scratch-built starship by the Kallamity chap. He is a mecha designer. I’m waiting his second book out next year.

Every year the NKGC organise a modelling competition. I think these are from the Ma.k.s world. I appreciate them very much.