"I'm a joker, I'm a smoker, I'm a midnight toker"

A while back I stumbled across this great thread in the Workbench section of the Lead Adventure Forum.

A group was rounding up orders for, or gauging interest in, a Victorian version of a certain nemesis of a caped nocturnal vigilante.

Well I was in for it immediately. The sculptor, who goes by Vermis but is, I believe, named Warren, was even doing alternate heads -- one based on Conrad Veidt, the star of the German Expressionist silent film "The Man Who Laughs," from the Victor Hugo novel (and a big inspiration for Bob Finger's original design of The Joker), and the other with the skinned and reattached face we've seen in recent comics.

There had apparently been an earlier drive to craft the Gentleman Vigilante himself. I opted not to purchase one of these, but they do look good.

So I had to get two of Mr. Grins, and they arrived at my secret base in the heart of a dormant volcano yesterday. And they are every bit as wonderful as anticipated.

Here's a pic of my two minis in the metal. These are really clean casts. There was one tiny piece of flash attached to one of the top hats, but I took care of that with a judiciously applied fingernail. The only mold line of any significance runs along the underside of the figure's right arm, but a file should get rid of that with minimal effort.

I don't exactly have a plan to slot him into the world of "Brass & Blood" yet, but it'll come to me, no doubt. I mean, every setting can use a psychopath disfigured by a Glasgow smile, right?

And the vigilante haunting Victorian smokestacks and alleyways to stop him is already in my collection.

Guess what I got?

The last thing I need is a new game to get into but ...

when I heard that Wayland was going to have a few copies of the special Joker edition of Knight Model's Batman Miniatures Game rulebook on their stand at Salute, I decided I just had to have one.

I'd passed when they were up for pre-order, most likely because I was overcommitted to kickstarters at the point (who am I kidding, always).

It didn't help that I used to have a T-shirt with the design from the cover. Here's my copy:

Given that I live in the States, retrieving this from Salute would've been terribly difficult without the amazing assistance of my Facebook friend and fellow member of the Tabletop Skirmishers group Andrew Bussey. Thanks again, Andrew, for being such a superb ninja shopper!

I haven't sat down with it in great detail yet, but let me say this is perhaps the most beautiful gaming rulebook I own. (Note: I haven't bought any of the recent wave of slip-covered, gold-foil bedecked rulebooks or codices from anybody. If I'm scared to put it on the table, I don't want it.) The full-page photography and full color throughout make this a pleasure to read. It's a sturdy hardback, too, and I think its price is totally justified.

I also received the limited Red Hood figure, which neither of us expected, but neither of us was going to complain. Here he is:

So I've returned to the Arkham City Limits Facebook group (I'd joined early on but left as I wasn't really doing anything with Batman.) If you're on FB and interested in the Batman Miniature Game, or any supers gaming, really, you need to check it out. It is among the most friendly, resourceful, knowledgeable groups I've had the pleasure of taking part in. It's right up there with A Wyrd Place and the aforementioned Tabletop Skirmishers for quality membership.

I was really going to try and pick and choose very carefully from Knight's releases for this game and only purchase figures of characters I really love -- Harley (Arkham version), Killer Croc (because alligator, obviously), Swamp Thing and Victor Szazs (because asylum lunatics -- I get them for every system I can find). But now I think I'm going to have to get all the Gotham Sirens, some of the various versions of the Joker, and I want to track down the Alfred Pennyworth that came with the Batman cover of the rulebook.

I saw in the new releases they're putting out Joker's Daughter in her New 52 incarnation. Here she is:

But I much prefer the previous version where she was all steampunky and known as Duela Dent. (The new one is Duela, but they haven't revealed her last name, I don't believe.) She's become pretty famous because of the cosplay meme involving someone slagging off the cosplayer and everyone else shouting that person down for not knowing what they were talking about.

But here she is from the comics:

And here's that cosplay meme:

Now, if they'd make a miniature of that version of her, I'd buy them by the truckload. OK, not really, but I'd buy several, most likely. As it stands, it shouldn't be too hard to find one of the many female steampunk figures out now and do a conversion, or maybe just a paint job would be enough, depending on the figure.

Suggestions for figures for Duela Dent's steamy goodness, anyone?

While you think about that, I've got to head home.

Back to the boards, everyone, and I'll see you across the table soon.