TWIG Special - 2025 Last Minute Holiday Gift Ideas Guide (And Review Impressions) - ThisWeekInGeek

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hell No, it's time for another special feature.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Did you crow up wickham Net PlayStation star Both Cotton said,
any CV do you like to think you would win
in a fight between Batman and the Mastarchie Comics, Skas, Movies,
Music Can TV. They're gonna tell you wheverything you need,
superheroes are nothing, catch sharp back and they're gonna say

(00:29):
the world Domcakes, Comics, Skays, Movies, Music can TV. They're
gonna tell you wheverything you need, superheroes are nothing, Catch

(00:51):
sharp back, They're gonna say the World Dom Da switter
can Cake.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
Well, Hello and welcome to our final I think Gift
Guide program coverage for the year of twenty twenty five
at this week and gig. That's right, Alex the producer here.
We've split up our Gift Guide coverage over the last
few years as it grew, also as postage delays and
different things that happened. We realized that sometimes stuff would

(01:29):
come in too late for us to go to air
with it for the regular show, but still with enough
time for people to do their last minute shopping. Hence
the last minute last shopping idea, whatever you want to
call it, or I guess sometimes We've called it our
last minute gift ideas. Sometimes we've called it our last
twelve days of Christmas, depettingga what it's come out, But

(01:50):
as it stands, this is basically our last show before
we do any holiday specials that are pre recorded for
the end of the year. Birdman should have a bunch
of stuff in this might have stuff from some of
the other Twig partners, but not entirely sure I myself,
I'm not doing any full reviews in here. I'm going

(02:11):
to sort of go in this intro section and do
first impressions of some things that we've received that it's
too late to go to ericas will be off, as
well as highlighting some stuff that we might have talked
about in the last few weeks that we just wanted
to give into an extra push to because we thought
it was really cool and you'd still have time to
either go buy physically in person or in many cases

(02:33):
when it comes to late games in that there's digital
versions that you can either buy as a gift for
somebody or maybe you know, get a gift card, purchase it,
send it as a gift, whatever you want to do
that way, So I may as well talk about a
few of the things that I know we have in
the past talked about that I want to just mention
here because some of our friends and partners that send

(02:56):
stuff and first and foremost I know I talked was
it a few weeks back, maybe for our Black Friday discussions?
We talked about the Hitster game, and we've talked about
that in the past. I think it was a year
or two ago we talked about it originally. And then
there's the Guilty Pleasures Hitster game, which is the new

(03:19):
one that you know, we just got to try for
the first time. But with Hitster, just a brief summary,
it's a music card game. You listen to over one
hundred years of music. You take turns arranging the cards
in chronological order of your music timeline, and it's just
basically a party game. You could sit with your friends
and play over the course of you know, I guess

(03:41):
like a half hour, maybe an hour long, depending on
how people playing. It says two to twenty players, but
it's basically variable however you want to do it. So
you're having a dinner party, waiting for something in the
oven or waiting for something to like, I don't know,
show up for delivery. If you're lazy like me, this
is something you could pick up and play with friends.
And obviously there was the Guilty Pleasures new set, which

(04:06):
was it was actually pretty fun. We were trying it out.
I'm actually probably going to be taking this to play
with family, because we're actually going to be doing our
Christmas with my immediate family on the twenty third for
a brunch because everybody else the family, you know, they're
all traveling doing different things on Christmas Eve, Christmas dance
sort of stuff. So it was just easier for us

(04:27):
to gather on the twenty third, do a brunch, do
like a stalking stuff or exchange, and then if there's
any other guests for anybody, we're going to open them
up on our own on Christmas, and this might be
something that we do while we hang out. We're still
not sure for the brunch, if it's going to be
finger food or if it's going to be like ordering
in Chinese or something. We just we want to make
it just a very simple, easy, breezy time and that's

(04:49):
probably one of the factors is to you know, maybe
we'll play some games, so maybe Hitster. Guilty Pleasures talked
about it previously. I'll put a link in the description
if you're looking for it. It's got an MSRP about
thirty bucks Canadian and then you can sort of, you know,
check out where you can pick it up in stores.
And I'm trying to think if there's a couple of
other things here. Oh yes, Playmobile had sent over something

(05:11):
that was a little too late for us to talk
about on the main show, but they sent over their
pirates large pirate ship, which is really neat and I
know it's going to make kids and our family happy.
It was chosen by I think it was Toy Insider
here for the for their gift guide last year, and

(05:34):
it's really neat. Basically, it's got movable sales, fully functional
anchor cannon, a ton of little accessories with it, and
it's a pretty decently large set. But it's also fairly lightweight,
so it's easy to move around and you can easily,
you know, put it away somewhere. It's one of those
things where I know with families you might want to

(05:58):
get like a big ziplock bag hold some of the
smaller pieces, or keep it all together. Maybe keep the
box too, so that you have a place to store it,
but it's not like overly cumbersome or anything. It can
you could sort of put it in the closet when
you want to put it away if you want to.
But yeah, it's really neat. It's scott An MSRP about
one hundred and forty bucks. So if you're looking for
a bigger set to give some kids, it's really cool.

(06:21):
I thought it was really neat. Reminded me of a
lot of the toy stuff that you know, when I
was little little that we used to get when they'd
have these big sets like this. But it's available Playmobile
dot CAA as well as independent retailers Walmart, Toys r
US if you're in Canada, and Amazon dot ca A.
Really neat stuff. Want to do another shout out Fujifilm Instacts.

(06:44):
We've talked about their stuff on a few different shows.
That is, if you're looking for a quote unquote more
adult gift to give somebody. The Intax cameras are awesome.
We've talked about like the Mini forty one, as well
as their hybrid instag camera, the play plus Plus. Previously
we had talked about stuff from them like the the

(07:06):
Mario coin theme or Mario, I guess accessory themed printer
that they have all stuff sort of pairs with that too.
And if you're looking to timing wise when you hear this,
it might be a little too late for it, but
there might still be time if you're like local in
Ontario to order from the Fujifilm Print Life website and

(07:29):
have some custom stuff printed mail to you might just
make it for Christmas. You'll have to check on their
delivery times on their website, but that's something too. Everybody
loves a personalized custom thing. And we also talked about
my first drawings set last time, but I wanted to
make mention just one final thing from them is that
that ready set spaghetti that we talked about for the

(07:51):
Black Friday deals. That's something. Check out your local store
that might carry like board games that sort of stuff.
Keep one out for that. It might be a little
too late for it, but for buying online, but for
digital or sorry for picking up in person, you might
be able to do that. So just some cool stuff
there links in the description where available, and moving on,

(08:14):
there's a few other things I want to mention before
we get to some of the reviews and mentions that
Birdman has.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
I have.

Speaker 3 (08:22):
Been playing some games and watching some movies and stuff
over the last little bit, and I've mostly caught up
on things, but I did want to mention that some
stuff I've been playing and give some first impressions of them.
Right now, I have been playing Octopath Traveler zero from
Square Enix. They provided a review copy for me to

(08:43):
check out, and it's been pretty pretty fun. I've playing
it on the Nintendo Switsch too. It is I know,
it's sort of like an adaptation. They took some of
the assets of the mobile game, which I tried briefly
but couldn't get into because I just have a hard
time I'm playing any serious games on a mobile platform.

(09:04):
And it is fun and it's immersive. It's different than
what you'd expect. You've heard people give it reviews. I'll
just say right now, I'm enjoying it so far. The
graphics are good, the controls are good. It's a completely built,
you know, ground up game using the assets of the
previous and it does tie into the first game. I
can say that. Don't want to spoil anything. Just if

(09:24):
you're looking for something again, you know it's still time
to pick it up. If you want to pick it up,
like physical or digital. It's going to be a good
bet for the RPG fan in your household. Might be
doing a full review and maybe more coverage in the
new year, but as we're pretty much off, it's it's
going to be in rotation during our holidays for me
to play for sure. Just wanted to make mention that

(09:47):
I'm having a great time with so far. We also
have received from our friends the Telenet Shooters. This is
a collection, the Talent It Shooters collection. Our friends sent
a review copy for PC. It's interesting in that you

(10:07):
don't like. When you activate it, you get a launcher
and then you can buy the games individually to put
with it, and sometimes there can be a bundle price
and make it cheaper. But it comes with Granada Avenger Geyrez.
I got to get my pronunciation right and Psychic Storm
and my particular one. When I activated it, it had

(10:28):
the luxe versions that came with the soundtracks for each
which is pretty neat. You unlock them and then they
can launch from within a launcher within the game. So
I've seen some companies do that before. But if you're
confused as to you know why when you get it.
You have to get the games individually and put them in.
That's just how it's designed, so you can basically purchase
them in any order. This is pretty sweet. The publisher

(10:51):
is Idia or Eddia. You might have seen their name
pop up on some other stuff fairly recently, and I'll
say this, they all work pretty well pretty much any
PC pop it in. They're classic shooters of like the
like sixteen bit era controls pretty tight, works fine with
my game pads and pretty much anything. It does require

(11:14):
some mouse to get in and navigate around. There might
be some patches later. It's just I think the nature
of the design of how they're activated, but the sound
and video is emulated quite well. Fun stuff. You can
go into the settings of them, change some of the difficulties,
turn on a little bit of accessibility options, but it's
it's mostly like you have a proper, you know, decent

(11:36):
launcher with all these individual games worth checking out for sure.
As well as that stuff. I have also been checking
out Pokemon Legends z A or z A depending on
where you're from. I think I think it's probably Z Day,
but I'll say Z to A or is it because

(11:57):
of the Americans I'm not sure. Regardless. We reviewed the
main game just a little while ago on the show
and I was given the opportunity to check out the
Mega Dimensions DLC for that, and it's actually one of
the more substantial expansions I've seen for at Pokemon title.
It's about so I'm probably a little more than halfway

(12:20):
through as of the time of this discussion here, but
it's somewhere in the realm of I We've got six
to six plus hours maybe minimum if you're just mainlining it.
But there is some roguelide aspects to it, which is
not going to be for everybody, but there is you know,

(12:42):
tons of new returning Pokemon high level stuff that you
can do at the endgame. There's a lot more challenge here,
I would say than in the main game. So this
is going to be sort of like where you spend
a lot of time if you've completed them the game
already and you're just that kind of bored. You want

(13:02):
to have something that will really challenge yourself. That's going
to be here too. There is a lot of grinding
and repetitive parts to it, so that might turn some
people off. I just have to preface that there can
be some frustrations with navigation, but you will get used

(13:22):
to it. I'll just say that it is an interesting
way that they went with it. Visually, it's pretty much
what you'd expect from the franchise. It does add a
fair amount of content. So if you're looking to sort
of enhance what you've been doing and what you play
with it, and you're looking to maybe get somebody a
good Christmas present, you can get the game, you know,

(13:43):
purchase a gift card or something, and get the expansion
for it the DLC, and you'd have a pretty solid
thing to play all throughout the holidays. So I'm recommending it.
Just know that it is a little harder and the
gameplay loop of it might not be for everybody, but
when it clicks with you, I think it clicks quite well.
So I am going to recommend it. And I'm trying

(14:04):
to think, is there anything else I wanted to mention
very specifically for this? Yeah, you know what, as far
as other stuff, we had some stuff coming in even
later than this. We might even do another review show,
but that will probably be after Christmas. But as for
any other recommendations that I have for the holiday gift guide, yes,

(14:32):
we did receive some other games for I guess consideration
that came in a little late. A couple of games
from Capcom came in right before the Game Awards, so
not a lot of time to play directly. But we
did end up playing the Capcom Fighting Game Collection too.
That was one of the games that was nominated at

(14:53):
the Game Awards. I received a code for it for
the Nintendo Switch and it's pretty he fun. I see
why bird and likes it. So I'm going to recommend
if you're looking for, you know, a fighting game or
fighting game collection to play during the holidays, you know,
maybe pick it up. You know there is physical versions
but also digital. If you're looking for a gift card
you want to purchase a digital copy instead. It's somebody

(15:15):
not a bad choice. It could be pretty fun something
to play over the holidays when you're on break. Same
with any Musha to samurais Destiny. The first game was remastered.
I was a year or two ago something like that,
and now we've got the second one. And this is
also sort of in prep of the new game coming out.
I believe this year or this upcoming year. We'll double
check on that, but just a couple of games to consider.

(15:37):
I thought they were pretty fun. Ati Musha too takes
a little bit of get used to because you got
to go back sort of in the mindset of the
game that was twenty some eight years old. But I
think it hold up pretty well, especially with playing on Switch.
I'm playing like they were both switched one games. I
was playing in backwards pat mode on the Switch too,
and they're pretty fun. So I mean, I had a
great time with it, and that's pretty much for me.

(16:00):
I'll put links in the description for the show if
you want to check these out. From me. I'm not
exactly sure what Birdman or what other stuff we have
to throw in, but we'll be throwing off to him
because there's probably some recommendations there. I'll come back at
the end and just sort of do a little bit
of a round up and say what's coming, because there
are probably some things that has if this recording are
still not here, and as it stands, that means we

(16:22):
won't have any reviews for that before Christmas, but there
are there might be a few breakout shows that we
do uh to release during the holiday season, and I'll
mention those then. So I'm gonna throw it over to
Birdman and we'll see what recommendations he has for this
final last minute gift ideas gift guide The.

Speaker 2 (16:50):
Transners, the.

Speaker 4 (16:55):
Chance Horners.

Speaker 5 (16:59):
Hey guys, this is Mike the Birdman here and this
is an addition to our holiday gift guide. This is
my Hasbro toy roundup. As you guys know, I am
a ridiculously huge Transformers fan, both cases figuratively and literally,
and I love my little Transforming robots. And well, I'm

(17:20):
here to share with some of you my picks for
the holiday season this year.

Speaker 4 (17:25):
And I think if you pick these up for the Transformers.

Speaker 5 (17:27):
Fan in your life, they will be swearing allegiance to
Optimus Prime or perhaps Megatron. So whether you're Autobot, Decepticon,
or maybe even a mercenary like Double Dealer, that's right,
a little bit of deep lower cut right there. I'm
here to talk to you about some of the really
cool picks you can pick up this holiday season. Most
of these can be picked up from hasbropulse dot com,

(17:48):
but also don't forget retailers like Walmart, Target, Amazon, and
wherever fine toys are sold.

Speaker 4 (17:56):
So the first one I'm going to be.

Speaker 5 (17:57):
Talking about is actually probably one of my favorite molds,
and this one is a recent re release. I'm really
glad to see people get a second crack at. This
is the Transformers Generation War for Cybertron earth Rise.

Speaker 4 (18:11):
Run Amuck.

Speaker 5 (18:11):
This is the first of the Battle Chargers. This is
the white car and honestly, I just love the transformation
on this guy. Great sculpting, comes with a cool little pistol.
He does have a partner run About, but he is
the Target exclusive. He hasn't been re released yet. I'm
really hoping Hasbro does us a solid in the future

(18:33):
and re releases him. Because he was released during the
pandemic it was hard to find. But aside from that, now, seriously,
run Amuck. It's just it's a fantastic figure. It's super
intuitive to transform, wonderful articulation, great look on the vehicle mode,
and yeah, I mean ultimately it's probably one of my
favorite Decepticon soldiers in the last couple of years.

Speaker 4 (18:56):
Again, he doesn't have to be fancy to be great.

Speaker 5 (18:59):
And again just the fact I love gimmicky Transformers and
seeing like things like Headmasters and the battle Chargers and
Target Masters get brought up.

Speaker 4 (19:09):
Into modern forms.

Speaker 5 (19:10):
Honestly, run Amuck is one of my favorites from this era,
and like I said, you should definitely be checking out
the Transformers Warfare Cybage on Earth Rise run Amuck definitely
worth an addition to your Decepticon ranks.

Speaker 4 (19:25):
Moving on, we're gonna check out something that's gonna be
coming out rather soon.

Speaker 5 (19:28):
I have heard this is available from other retailers online,
but you can get this from hasbropulse dot com. This
is the Transformers the Movie nineteen eighty six Deluxe wind Charger.
Wind Charger unfortunately dies during the nineteen eighty six movie,
but he transforms into the little Pontiac trans Am. And

(19:50):
what makes wind Charger particularly cool is he's literally the
master of magnetism for Transformers. He has an amazing array
of abilities and there's even little bit of a blast
effect that is compatible with him which can be used.

Speaker 4 (20:03):
In vehicle mode and in robot mode.

Speaker 5 (20:06):
Displaying his magnetic powers also comes with a really neat
little pistol, but really sets him apart.

Speaker 4 (20:12):
It's the sculpting.

Speaker 5 (20:13):
He looks fantastic in vehicle mode and in robot mode.

Speaker 4 (20:18):
Particularly please with like the sculpting on his face.

Speaker 5 (20:21):
And if you're into the mini bots I think Hasbro
has done a really fantastic job with stuff like Sea
Spray and with gears and Brawn and Bumblebee and Cliff Jumper,
any of the smaller boss that have come out in
the last couple of years, even the Walmart exclusive lines

(20:42):
with the kind of g one accurate deco for the heads,
with the gears and bronze of that. This is a
fantastic companion piece too. That especially when you put them
in vehicle mode. I almost wish I had a second
eighty six Ultra Magnus just to put all the mini
bots on his carc mode. I think wind Charger is

(21:03):
really nice for the deluxe class of figure, and ultimately,
if you're collecting the nineteen eighty six Studio series line,
I think you're in for something really kind of special.
I am hoping, because I'm that morbid guy, that we
do get a two pack of this as the Dead collection,
because Win Charger disappear in the nineteen eighty six movie

(21:25):
alongside his compatriot wheel Jack. Both were picked up by
RC with Springer just before they loaded the launcher to
fight Devastator in the Battle of Autobot City. But seriously,
Win Charger looks fantastic. He's alive and kicking and to
definitely be added to your collection this Christmas. The next one.

(21:46):
Good to be talking about this one. I did not
expect to get a re release, but this is the
Transformers Generations Warfare Cybergron earth Rise Voyager class. This is
going to be well, how would I even begin to
describe this one?

Speaker 4 (22:04):
This is the dream come true.

Speaker 5 (22:06):
That I was really lucky I didn't have to go
on the secondary market and pick this guy up. This
is Thrust, that's right. This is the other cone Head.
This is the the toll Jet, the maroon ve toll
that went for ridiculously high prices on the secondary market
as he was a Target.

Speaker 4 (22:26):
Exclusive or Toys r US exclusive.

Speaker 5 (22:28):
Here in Canada, and just due to his release schedule
was really hard to find from all the people that
I've had a chance to watch their videos on. He
was available for like a week and then boop gone.
But fortunately he has been re released to the wide
world now. And seriously, Thrust for an earth Rise Seeker, mold,

(22:49):
you know what you're kind of getting with this, And
I don't suspect we're gonna get an updated Conehead Seeker
for quite some time, as we are getting eighty six
Thundercracker early next year, which I should get my review
copy sometime in the new year. But no, seriously, just
having Thrust on my shelf, he looks really good in

(23:11):
robot mode, like he just looks dynamic despite being an
earth Rise Seeker. But it's the color that really sets
him apart, and his vehicle mode with those two v
toll intakes on his side, just looks It's outstanding. And honestly,
just the fact that we can finally have a commercially
accessible Thrust, I think that's awesome. Trust me, if you

(23:34):
give this to someone who has that gap where they
need their companion to Ramjet and Dirge, I don't think
they're gonna complain when you add this to your collection.
The next one is gonna be something that I didn't
quite know what to expect because I'm a big fan
of these Amazon two packs. But you can get this
from Hasbro Pulse right now. I have seen this in

(23:55):
retail stores, I want to say as well, and this
is the transform age of the Primes Reckon Doom collection.
This is Autobot Sandstorm and Decepicon slug Slinger. Now these
are read decos of existing figures closer to their G
One animation model, and I want to say Sandstorm may

(24:18):
have a slightly different face if I recall, I have
the original Sandstorm, but he's on my shelf transformed into
his I think it's like a Chinook helicopter, which looks
freaking amazing by the way, but no, he is a
triple changer that turns into a helicopter in kind of
a dune buggy. Fantastic looking Alt mode and robot mode

(24:42):
in this seriously probably one of the best engineered triple
changers we've had so far for the collection, and I
really don't think you could go wrong with it.

Speaker 4 (24:52):
It's just such an outstanding figure.

Speaker 5 (24:55):
Slug Slinger is a re release of a previous figure
that came out in the I want to say Power
of the Primes era, and there were two different color variations.
There was the North American release and the Takara release,
Whereas the version we're getting in this collection has one
that looks very close to his G One Headmasters version,

(25:17):
so I think it looks fantastic, amazing look and Robot
mode comes with his Target Master Buddy kind of Caliburst
it's not a true target Master, but the Target Master
is the head for this guy. But still I think
it looks fantastic. I actually gave him the weapon from
my next and final pick today.

Speaker 4 (25:39):
This is a two pack.

Speaker 5 (25:40):
This is from the Transformers Studio series more than me
CI collection. This is based upon Transformers Devastation, and you're
getting some troop builders for your collection. You are getting
the Decepticon Ground Soldier, which is based upon the earlier
mold that I talked about with earth Rise Runabout or
run Amuck, as they're virtually the same mold. And we're

(26:02):
also getting the Elite Seeker, which is a Dirge.

Speaker 4 (26:06):
Or maybe it's Ramjet, I'm not sure either way.

Speaker 5 (26:08):
One of the cone heads in this black and gun
metal gray, and he looks sick. There's even cell shading
on the cockpit of this jet and it looks really
really sharp. You're getting brand new weapons here with both figures.
You're getting swords that look really great. I actually gave

(26:29):
the sword to my Slug Slinger from my Decepticon Ground
Soldier because he looks so good in vehicle mode. And
I don't think the Blue guys came with guns. It's
been a really long time since I've played Devastation. But no, seriously,
this cell shaded line of Transformers figures I'm a big
fan of. I've got the Optimus, I've got the side

(26:52):
swipe with the red alert head. But no, seriously, I
think this two pack it's fantastic. You're gonna get Deluxe
and you're getting a Voyager. It is such a value
for what you're getting. Seriously, if you gave any of
these toys to someone for Christmas this year, I don't
think they're going to complain. So those are going to
be my picks from Hasbro. So if you are ready

(27:15):
to transform and roll out, you are going to have
an amazing holiday season.

Speaker 2 (27:20):
Good Transformers, Transformers from Hasbro.

Speaker 1 (27:27):
Hi, Hi, I'm sky. Welcome back, Welcome in, Welcome, Welcome
to a Starfinder story review. Today we're talking about eras,
specifically the Era of the Eclipse, written by Tim Pratt.
Sorry swifties. This is a fun book that follows Chick
Chicken Day as they begin their next adventure as new
members of the Starfinder Society. Of course, they quickly find

(27:50):
out how unglamored it is when you're starting out as
new members, and how there's more to it than flying
around in a spaceship and going on adventures. In this case,
Chicken Day are given what they think is about to
be a particularly boring assignment, reading three hundred pages, so
the higher up Maketymuck only has to read three. Naturally,

(28:11):
this task gets met with the usual groaning and fight
any bright eyed and bushy tailed new adventurer would produce.
On finding out what gruntwork actually is, the pair begin
to read pages that have been preserved and written on
various papers. Some are quite odd to be in such
a collection, only to find out they got beyond lucky,

(28:32):
and the boring set of papers, first thought to be
a collection equal in importance to grocery lists and random ephemera,
is actually a first hand account of events that followed
the big event. It answered questions about what happened after
the Gap. For those of you knew to the Starfinder universe,
the Gap is the big event that has more unanswered

(28:53):
questions than any other work I know of. How much
time was lost? Was there anything anyone could remember? What
happened to an entire planet? And where did the space
station come from? Yeah? Those are probably the big ones.
And of course, as you drill down to the details.
There are countless more. As the pair read the account,

(29:13):
they realize they can follow with themselves and see how
some of the events played out firsthand. A dream of
so many you get to study and appreciate history. Naturally,
they let their curiosity get the better of them, and
we get to go along for the ride. Well, I
wouldn't class this book as something I just couldn't put down.
It's definitely a fun story. I enjoyed reading with important

(29:35):
lore on the Starfinder universe, namely the beginnings of the
Order of the Eclipse and what drove their creation in
the wake of the Gap, explaining just why those particular
hell Nights are so hell bent on the censorship and
control of information overall. If you're a Starfinder fan, this
book is on my recommend to read list. Enjoy your adventures,

(29:56):
and I'll see you in the black. H Hi, I'm sky.
Welcome back, Welcome in, Welcome, Welcome to a Pizo review Today.
I want you to show me your war face and
give me your best battle cry. For those of you
who want to watch the story of Galeria and unfold
on your own, this is your spoiler alert. The world
of Galerian is never short of adventure, and now it's

(30:18):
getting more intense as a heat turns up following the
death of Gorum, the god of war. One would think
you'd find peace, calm, all that nice stuff. Of course,
there's always unexpected consequences, and in this case that was
the god's reign, which has sparked skirmishes, outright fighting and wars.

(30:39):
In all the pandemonium, the world has now seen the
return of the Jotenborn. Step beside giants, the jovenborn stand
at twelve feet tall and weigh in at fifteen hundred pounds.
For anyone that may want a comparison, that's about the
same height as a standard basketball hoop and about the
same weight as a milk cow. Naturally, the Jotenborn come

(31:01):
in with their own backstories, since the same questions will
always come up for those of you that share my
curiosity of why do we get this cool thing? Now
there's an answer. Before the joten Born came, the Titans,
need I say more about how that went. Unlike the Titans,
the gods of Galerian had learned lessons in the creation
of the Jotenborn, who were given the faintest spark of

(31:24):
creation and slighter forms while still being able to help
shape the rest of Galerian. The Jotenborn dedicated themselves their
duties shaping Galerian by growing mountains, carving out rivers, and
bringing the vision of the gods to life. Now here's
where we get to the reasoning. With no more work
to do in creation, the Jotenborn received their reward, a
place to call their own in the space between. In

(31:46):
this case, that was a space between the morally universe
and the ethereal plane, where the Jotenborn remained watching over
Galerian from afar unless there was a reason for them
to return during times of great need. Since the God's reign,
the joke have reappeared in Galarian and getting home well,
that's become hard, which has left the jot and Born
to adapt to life among the people in current day Galian.

(32:09):
For us, that also means new archetypes. As the fighting
heats up, there are new roles to fill, like the
warm age. Maybe learned your arcane craft at a war
college instead of your regular magic school, where you focus
less on theory and more unapplied magics and how best
to use your spells on the battlefield. We also have
the crossbow infiltrator, highly trained fighters, a favor, stealthy, sneaky

(32:33):
tricksy tactics and quiet weapons, assassination, spy, sp louche. What
might you want to try? And there are eleven new
archetypes to explore in this book, along with a new bloodline,
two new classes, and so much more. I'll be honest,
I have no idea what would be the most interesting
for you, but I have to admit I'm still hung

(32:54):
up on the battle loot. No longer do you have
to choose between being able to play for inspiration or
effectively pummeling your enemies. So how fun will you cry
havoc and ut least your Pathfinder characters into war?

Speaker 5 (33:06):
Hey guys, this is Mike the Birdman here. I'm here
to talk to you about kind of a Shark Ninja roundup.
We're gonna do a couple of rapid fire reviews as
they sent over a lot of stuff and we couldn't
squeeze everything into the Holiday gift guide, So if you're
looking for some additional gifts this holiday season, then you
should definitely be checking out the following products that I'm
gonna be talking about right here, right now, let's rock

(33:29):
and roll. We're gonna be talking about the Ninja program
Bill x L fourteen coffee cup maker. So we actually
gave this to my sister who is a nurse practitioner,
and believe me, if anybody needs a cup of coffee
first thing in the morning, it's her. She loved how
programble it is, having coffee ready whenever you want it.

(33:49):
It stays piping hot for several hours, which, again, having
that in her office definitely something nice that she could
definitely look kind.

Speaker 4 (33:57):
Of forward to.

Speaker 5 (33:58):
Takes up a remarkably little bit of counter space again,
because we're all have all sorts of gadgets and stuff
on our countertops right now when space is always at
a premium, and obviously having up to fourteen cups of
coffee is enough to serve the entire family or me
for an afternoon if I happen to be on extremely
tight deadline. So that's something you can definitely kind of

(34:20):
check out. Also, we also have the Shark Ninja Belgian
waffle maker because, believe me, in the morning, my wife
is making waffles and it's the best thing to wake
up to on Christmas morning, The ability to make your
own Belgian waffles in your own kitchen. It's pretty cool
as it has a vertical design which ensures that the
batter makes it to each crispy corner of the non

(34:44):
stick surface, so you're not having to, you know, kind
of worry about waffles sucking.

Speaker 4 (34:48):
What more can I say?

Speaker 5 (34:49):
My entire family is hale to have is excited to
have waffles any day, and that means if I want
to have chicken and waffles, it's gonna be extra delicious
to say, I'm going to be encouraging my wife to
be making that at some point in the new year.
The next thing this actually I actually had a hands
on demo with this. My wife is gonna be talking

(35:11):
about these Shark speed style Proflex hair dryer. So my
wife has really really long and thick hair. Her hair
was dry in three minutes. So now she has no
excuse to go out with her hair wet and catching cold.
And if she ever wants to torture me, she can
make sure that I don't go outside with wet hair either.

(35:34):
Now this is something that I didn't expect. So she
was drying her hair with the hair dryer and She's like, hey, Mike,
check this out. And she gripped the body of this thing,
and I was like, oh my god, I'm gonna burn
your hands.

Speaker 4 (35:47):
What the hell are you doing? It was cold to
the touch.

Speaker 5 (35:51):
Couldn't believe how well insulated this thing was. I was
like utterly in amazement and shock for that. Plus there's
like tons of different attachments for this thing. She was
using the brush and the smoothing attachment and was left
with straight and silky smooth hair, and that means I
don't have to brush your hair. So best part about

(36:13):
it is, like I said, this thing.

Speaker 4 (36:14):
Was so cool to the touch.

Speaker 5 (36:17):
It's super small and when you open up the package,
it says, hey, here's what everything does. Here is how
to use it.

Speaker 4 (36:24):
That's nice.

Speaker 5 (36:25):
I wish more companies would kind of do that in
their packaging, sort of like here is the idiot proof
guide to using this thing.

Speaker 4 (36:30):
What can I say?

Speaker 5 (36:31):
Party on, you should definitely be checking out these Sharkspe
style Proflex hair dryer, and I think.

Speaker 3 (36:36):
It is pretty neat.

Speaker 5 (36:37):
And then finally we're gonna be talking about the Ninja
Detect Duo power and personal blender with single serve cups.
We've loved our Ninja blender for absolutely years, but my
wife is super impressed with the upgraded version. This thing
comes with a seventy three ounce pitcher to make large
batches of your famous smoothies or instantly mix up waffle

(36:58):
batter for our.

Speaker 4 (36:59):
New Ninja Belgian waffle maker.

Speaker 5 (37:02):
Also includes a single serve cup with a sprout lid
for your drinks on the go. Powerful, versatile, made from
tough and durable for ice crushing to the smoothest of sauces,
and what can I say again, it's a really nice
kick ass blender. I have never had disappointment when it
comes to anything we've got from Shark Ninja this entire year.

(37:25):
So this has been a rapid fire review of some
of the stuff. And if you want to check out
more detailed reviews on some of the other things we've
gotten this year, go check out the main Twig Holiday
gift guide or what we did earlier this year for
back to.

Speaker 2 (37:38):
School Those magnificent beats.

Speaker 5 (37:41):
Color me kookie, but something very odd is going on
around here.

Speaker 4 (37:45):
You're not allowed to talk anymore, alrighty, and that is
going to do it.

Speaker 3 (37:49):
For the gift guide or Last Minutes Gift Guide whatever
we're calling it this year. That's it. We're pretty much
done for the year. I know that we've got Earth
Versus Soup episode it's coming out, so some classic sci
fi movie goodness from Aaron and Darlene. Every Thursday, including
Christmas Day, we were thinking of what to put there.

(38:10):
It's coming out regardless. We've also got this coming week
in place of the regular show since we're on a
hiatus till the end of January. We have a Future
Imperfect episode on Judged Dread and the Dread twenty twelve.
I guess new adaptation wasn't a remake. It was more

(38:31):
of a not I guess, a reinterpretation movie. So we
recorded that a little while ago in anticipation of putting
it out during the break. That should be, you know,
a good fun listen if I remember correctly. Ifhen we
recorded it, we had a good time talking about those movies.
But the Earth Versus Soup this coming week is MESA
of the Lost Women from nineteen fifty three, and then

(38:52):
the one that comes out on Christmas is Conquest of
Space from nineteen fifty five, and we also have one
coming out on New Year's Day. Actually, yeah, so that
is a Man in the Moon from nineteen sixty. We
also will have believe Birdman has a special on the

(39:14):
Lord of the Rings that he's working on with the
boys with the rest of the crew over there for
the Loose Cannon, I think it's probably gonna be a
Loose Cannon podcast, might have some more random access memories
episodes come out as well. We've got some interesting stuff there.
The prototype, I believe, is on hiatus with us until
the new Year, unless something major happens news in the

(39:34):
gaming world wise. Beyond that, Birdman and I are trying
to work out over the next few days before Christmas happens,
where we're going to maybe record some sort of special
for Christmas, either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day as well,
so you know, the whole Christmas Holidays, Boxing Day, all
that sort of stuff. There's going to be three or

(39:55):
four episodes that you can sink your teeth into if
you're you know, want something on in the background, or
just want to you know, virtually, I guess, sort of
hang out with us. We're also doing some experimental stuff
with video, like I'm doing some long play records of
some of our favorite games, starting with Mass Effect is up.
I think now we might go through and do the

(40:16):
whole trilogy over the course of the holidays. But we'll
see how that works and see see if we can
get everything technically working the way we want, not necessarily
doing live streams, but maybe just recording our gameplay, putting
it up, minimal commentary, just again cool background stuff you
can listen to and maybe watch if you want to
go at decent quality is the hope. And then we'll

(40:36):
see what we do structurally wise when it comes to
live streams or interactive video and stuff like that in
the New Year's sort of off and on, you know,
backburner hobby project of ours here. Beyond that, that is
pretty much it for the holidays, where we're good to go.
We hope everybody is, you know, warm, safe, happy. If

(40:59):
you can't be, Bourban always mentions, you know, he wants
you to reach out to us if you're if you're
not feeling so great, you know, reach out to on
the socials. We'll chat with you. But you know, find
a game, find something you want to do and play
and hang out and do whatever. We might play some
games online over the holidays. If we do, we might
record it and send it. We're not entirely sure yet.

(41:20):
We're you know, started leaving it up to the win.
But hopefully in this last minute gift guide as well
as the one that we did for the main holiday
gift guide, our Black Friday Deals thing that we talked
about previously, go check them out. They're in the recent
episodes that we've released, same with the tabletop RPG special
that we did with tabletop RPGs and board games. There's

(41:41):
so much cool stuff out there this year. We know
that money is tight for many, many, many people, and
you're looking for good deals and looking for stuff you
can do that you know, stretches the money but also
gives you the you know best return, you know, entertainment
wise and gift wise. That's why we the stuff because
we're people on budgets ourselves. We do not make a

(42:04):
ton of money. Burman and I are both on disability,
so we try to make things stretches best we can,
and that's why we do this. We try to find
the best deals for people. So hopefully you found something
here that interests you. We'll be back in the new year,
maybe beforehand if anything major happens, but this is pretty
much it for our live programming for the year. Happy holidays,

(42:24):
everybody you know, be excellent to each other, and we'll
see you in the new year. Right here on This
Week in Geek dot Net.

Speaker 5 (42:31):
At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you
even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought.

Speaker 4 (42:42):
Thanks for listening to this episode of This Week in Geek.

Speaker 1 (42:45):
Hungry for more, check out our website.

Speaker 3 (42:47):
If this Week in Geek dot Net you can subscribe
to the podcast, browse our Twitter and Instagram, and leave
your thoughts on today's topics. If you'd like to give
us some feedback, send us an email at Feedback at
This Week in Geek dot Net.

Speaker 5 (42:59):
Tune in, and remember, lower your shields and surrender your listenership.

Speaker 3 (43:04):
We would be honored if you would join us.

Speaker 4 (43:06):
Thank you for your cooperation.

Speaker 3 (43:08):
Good night,

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TWIG Special - 2025 Last Minute Holiday Gift Ideas Guide (And Review Impressions)

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