New Harry Potter AR Game, Early Man Trailer, Introducing Addi Flexiflips Knitting Needles and Pokemon XY Evolutions TCG

Hello fellow wizards! Last week was quite busy but I’m finally working on my novel again. Anyone else here writing a novel? I actually regret the weeks I went without writing anything due to how busy I was, well I’m not even sure if that’s much of an excuse, I guess I just had a writer’s block. A vlog almost came out along side this blog actually believe it or not, my sister and I went on a little trip Friday. Sadly my sister and I were told we couldn’t film in the location we were at so you guys will have to wait even longer for another travel vlog. I’ll try and find someplace nearby where I can actually vlog without getting in trouble. Anyway today’s blog contains once again a wide spectrum of topics once again. No major Pokemon news was dropped so you guys can feel relieved until the release of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon this Friday. (Yes I’m aware of the leaks, I don’t discuss leaks.) I do have something Pokemon related later in the blog but it may be more on the TCG side of things… Anyway for now let’s roll into the first topic!

Niantic is Taking the Wizarding World to Augmented Reality!

Pokemon GO was a international phenomenon hands down and was played by millions and millions of Pokemon Trainers all over the world. Being able to capture Pokemon in real life on your smart phone? It was crazy but it worked. Of course it isn’t as popular as it was anymore despite the new updates rolling out recently but it’s still holding up. It seems a few other companies have taken notice of this phenomenon and one of them has contracted Niantic to produce a similar game for a completely different IP… Harry Potter. Yes believe it or not Harry Potter is receiving a Pokemon GO like game in the form of Harry Potter Wizards Unite.

Announced on Niantic’s official blog they discussed how Harry Potter: Wizards Unite will play, which is of course similar to Pokemon GO but how exactly is it going to play out? They described the game as allowing players “that have been dreaming of becoming real life Wizards” finally being able to experience the the Wizarding World everyone fell in love with. Quoted from this blog also Niantic wrote “Players will learn spells, explore their real world neighborhoods and cities to discover & fight legendary beasts and team up with others to take down powerful enemies.” While it sounds like an incredible magical experience I’m not sure if I’m grasping how they will actually implement that into a AR game similar to Pokemon GO and Ingress so I can’t wait to see some gameplay of this new Niantic mobile title.

This new Harry Potter game is actually the first to be announced under a new sub brand from Warner Brothers for more Harry Potter games that are soon to arrive. This sub brand is named “Portkey Games” and will feature games for mobile AND console, which means they could be bringing some expansive Harry Potter games to the consoles, hopefully the Nintendo Switch as well as Xbox One and PS4. This announcement is quite exciting as Harry Potter if done right should transition to Video Games quite well. I’ve never played the original Harry Potter games for the Gamecube/Wii so I’m not sure what those were like but I can’t wait to see what this new sub brand has in store for us Wizards and hey you muggles can join in too, just let me know what the function of a rubber duck is and we’re good.

You can read more here on Niantic's Blog: https://nianticlabs.com/blog/wizardsunite/ and Pottermore: https://www.pottermore.com/news/new-augmented-reality-mobile-game-harry-potter-wizards-unite-announced .

Moving on I got a new movie trailer for you guys and this time it’s for an animation, one that is instantly going on my must watch list. 

Bronze Age kicks down the Stone Age's door in Aardman's Early Man Movie Trailer!

Everyone knows Aardman Studios, right? These guys have created some hilarious and awesome claymation/stop motion animation such as the hit Wallace and Gromet series and one of my personal favorite animated movies, Chicken Run in which probably deserves a retrospect review at some point in the new future. Well it’s been in production since 2016 (Announced back in 2007 believe it or not) and now finally Early Man is here with a new trailer. The animation is so nostalgic for reasons possibly pertaining to Chicken Run so check out the trailer below! (Or by clicking this link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRiPQ8YNrVs)

This animation takes place in an age of ancient humanity, the Stone Age. Well more like the end of the Stone Age. Seems the story is centered on a caveman by the name of Dug (Eddie Redmayne) and his tribe, you know, doing cave man stuff. Everything seems normal until suddenly their Stone Age door is kicked in by the Bronze Age led by Lord Nooth (Played by Tom Hiddleston). Dug gets dragged into a medieval world filled with bronze machinery and humans much more advance then him and his tribe.

This movie looks like absolute fun and is glowing with the Aardman spirit. Will this usurp Chicken Run as my favorite claymation/stop motion animated movie? Is Aardman about to drop another classic? Am I a huge nerd for stop motion animation in general? Most likely. This movie is going to be releasing on January 26^th, 2018 in America but I’m not sure when Summit Entertainment plans on releasing it over here in the states.

Early Man is directed by Nick Park who you should all know as the creator of Wallace and Gromet and Chicken Run as well so the magic from those movies and Nick Park’s genius is running strong in this movie. I can’t wait to watch this movie so it’s only a matter of waiting.

When was the last time I even mentioned knitting? I know I know I’m a really poor excuse for a knitter lately, with a million unfinished projects and ideas that I haven’t even started yet I’ve really been slacking on the knitting. While I’m really sorry about that I haven’t lost interest in knitting and the great people at skacel collection, inc. and addi Needles has just announced a new kind of knitting needles which have really caught my eye. 

Introducing the Innovative Abbi FlexiFlips Double Pointed Knitting Needles.

I’ve only used Double Pointed Needles a few times in my knitting career but always found them to be awkward, cumbersome and just hard to use. Any other knitters feel that way? The way you have to have four needles clunking together and poking you in the hand just doesn’t work for me, thus I resort to using the magic loop method of knitting. Out of all the knitting needles I’ve used over the past year I have to say Addi and Addi Turbo are by far my favorite, Addi Turbos were the needles I used on my very first pair of socks and they made the process so much easier. Actually if you remember that far back I actually switched to Addi Turbo needles on those socks after struggling for the first 15 rows using DPNs. Well these newest Addi needles dubbed the Addi FlexiFlips look to be a silver lining for those stumped by DPNs, this newest video from skacel below will explain a lot. (Click here if the link doesn’t work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcNK0xCFXNc )

Pretty incredible huh? They’re kind of like the love child of magic loop and DPNs. Instead of dealing with four needles it’s actually two needles with a third needle for working the stitches. You can see they still operate like four double pointed needles but each needle has a plastic cord conjoining the two needles, forming one needle. You’ll use two flexiflips to hold your stitches on and one flexiflip to work your stitches, the second needle of the flexiflip will allow your stitches not to fall off as easily, which is a godsend to me. So basically you’re only going to need three Flexiflips which I believe is what each set comes with. Now there’s one more part of these needles that I need to point out are the actual needle tips. One Flexflips needle actually has two different needle tips. One end has the Addi Turbo needle tip and the other has one they call the “Rocket” tip. I’m actually not aware of what the benefits of the Rocket tip is but they offer two different tips for different scenarios in your knitting journey. I am concerned that I’ll get the two tips mixed up when knitting and use the wrong tip, in which might change my knitting gauge but I’m not sure if the tips will change the gauge or not.

Really want to get a hold of a set of these to review for you guys but for now I have a place that you can buy these from. Ewe Count is a knitting store based in Cheyenne, Wyoming and is one of the first stores to get a hold of these awesome needles. (Which seem to come in US 0 up to US 8) First of all if you’re in the area please go check this awesome store out! I really wish I could get up there myself but she currently has these needles available to purchase in store as well as shipped to you for those not in the area! You can visit this store by visiting 819 Randall Avenue Cheyenne, WY 82001 and contact her via phone at 307-638-1148. (Long distance charges may apply on landline phone calls.)  You can also check Ewe Count out at ewecount.com for more information and follow her on Facebook here. (@ewecount) A set of these will cost you 24.00 USD which is not bad for a 3 needle set; it’ll be all you need to get started on a project. 

These needles are probably a go to DPN alternative for someone like me so I can’t wait to get a hold of a set of these. Imagine how easier these will make casting on, knitting socks or even for finishing off beanies. For now I’m going to try to get back knitting because with winter coming up I need a new pair of fingerless gloves so who knows you may be seeing a new project in the near future, as well as hopefully some finished projects.

Check out more information at http://www.skacelknitting.com/addi-Flexiflips/

Well that’s pretty much it for the blog today, or is it? I’ve been teasing it for two weeks but it’s time for another Pokemon TCG unboxing! I’m actually ahead of myself on the packs to be honest. This week’s unpacking is of a pack I bought two weeks ago and the one I bought this week is actually out of the new Crimson Invasion series so you’ll have to wait to see what the new card pack has in store. (This way it won’t be spoiling the surprise for you guys too early, go grab yourself some Crimson Invasion booster packs!)

Getting Nostalgic with a Pokémon TCG XY Evolutions Booster Pack.

This week’s unpacking is going to be pretty nostalgic as I’ve picked myself up a XY Evolutions booster pack. Yeah believe it or not you can still buy XY TCG series packs and actually I’ve seen some packs as old as Diamond and Pearl still floating around so who knows I may go hunting for one of them.

This isn’t my first time unpacking a Pokemon XY Evolutions TCG booster pack as I actually unpacked three I believe last Christmas on a video. Now while that video isn’t a great quality (Lightbulb in the room I was filming went out and it was night time, go figure my impatience would get the better of me.) you can go watch that video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFo5Sr_ecmw . This XY Evolutions series brought back cards from the ORIGINAL TCG Base Set from 1997 so this series is by far one of my favorites as I never got to get any base TCG cards as a kid. For this pack I’m hoped to get a different lot of cards then I did on that video and boy did I ever

First up is 47/108 Gastly and yeah this is a duplicate of one I got before, oh well. Not the greatest kick off but hey this is still a cool card and sometimes duplicates can come in handy if you wish to trade cards with another. (Hit me up via email guys I’ll take anything I don’t have in my collection) This is actually one of two duplicates I sadly got this pack, the next one is this card.

This is 48/108 Haunter and yeah this is another duplicate but hey it matches up with Gastly. Was hoping to get a Gengar card but beggars can’t be choosers.

Now we’re getting into new cards for my collection this card is 3/108 Caterpie and I swear I’ve seen the original version of this card somewhere before in my lifetime. I think a kid on a school bus trip had one or something I do remember this card from somewhere but I can’t put my finger on it. Love this original Ken Sugimori illustration of Caterpie despite it being a common card.

This next card is 33/108 Magikarp. This is a cool illustration, I don’t get Magikarp often, actually I’m sure I’ve only ever gotten one before.  This is a common card but the nostalgic illustration makes it a welcome addition to my collection. (Which I should probably show off at some point when I figure out how without bogging everyone down.)

You know who’s cool? Seel. What’s even colder is this 28/108 card of Seal. Sporting Mr. Sugimori’s illustration of Seel this common card is pretty cool. I would love to actually get Dewgon in this set as well.

Alright with those cards out of the way I’m now coming up to the two greatest pulls I may have ever done in my lifetime of pulling Pokemon TCG Cards. I’ve probably said this before but Pikachu is by far one of my favorite Pokemon, I have a million different toys, plushies and even a million ingame Pikachus in my 7 generation spanning collection of Pokemon games. I also really love getting Pikachu TCG cards and out of this pack I got the one card I always wanted as a kid but like I said never got the base set cards, this is 35/108 Pikachu.

You should have seen the look on my face when I got this card, I don’t care if it’s common I have ALWAYS wanted this card and here we are. Even more incredible is the fact it’s a HOLO FOIL version of the card! I don’t mean to make you cringe or anything but I sure felt like a giddy little kid when pulling this card.

Now XY Evolutions also included some new cards as well as reprints of older Base TCG cards, mostly super rare EX and full body artwork cards. Why am I bringing this up? Because the next card I pulled was this incredible card right here, this is 103/108 Mewtwo EX!

I have to admit I was absolutely speechless when pulling this card. I don’t know why but my luck with cards seems to be getting better as of lately and this card is proof of that. This full body artwork card of Mewtwo has a different texture then ordinary cards (Although I would never actually touch the card, for mint condition reasons) and Mewtwo is sporting a snazzy gold outline in this illustration. Funny enough it looks like he’s coming out of an Ultra Wormhole despite this being XY. Maybe the recent announcement for Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon has brought this to mind but it really does look like that. This is a super rare card and I’m happy I got this card, now if I could just get some full body artwork cards of the Kanto Gym Leaders.

The last three cards are the following.

A Thunder Energy Card which I seem to get one energy card per pack lately, maybe that’s intentional.

82/108 Pokedex which as the name implies is a Pokedex card of the original Dexter himself. Always loved this version of the Pokedex and its cool how this card can help you pull the right card from your deck on the exact turn you want it to.

Finally here’s 77/108 Energy Retrieval which is always a useful card for those shorthanded of energy cards.

This is by far a favorite unpacking of mine and it’s added so many cool cards to my collection. I do want to get more XY Evolution packs but with 4 different packs of these in my collection I’ll be risking more duplicates, we’ll see how that plays out.

Next time I’ll be doing Crimson Invasions so I’ll be seeing you guys in two weeks!

Don’t forget while you’re buying some packs to stop by Gamestop and pick up your Shiny Silvally code card! I’m pretty sure today is the last day so make sure to not miss this. Not sure what the next event will be it seems we’ll be on break from the events for a while.

Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon come out THIS FRIDAY! The next Pokemon Journey awaits and I can’t wait to kick some Team Rocket booty once again while traversing the new and improved Alola region.

Until then however I’m going to leave you guys for the week. Be sure to enjoy it! As for what to expect next week, well you never know but I’ve been avidly watching RWBY Volume 5 so perhaps it’s time I discuss that.

This was ZAK Entertainment

See you next week!