Box

This is a great job of packaging.  

A small slip of paper as the packing slip and inside is also the name and address of the sender and receiver so if it ends up in the dead letter file, they can find who is supposed to get it.

Lots of heavy packaging keeping the product safe.

The product is also sealed in plastic to keep it dry.

Boat and Trucks

Hot Wheels boat H2Go.

My original plan was to use this as a BatBoat.

Now I found a new version with chrome engine so this one will be left as is, for now.

 HALO troops with the Hot Wheels Jungle Rally truck.

I think it makes a good troop carrier.

It will need to be repainted, of course.

Grease Rod

 

Drone prepares for launch as vehicles standby.

 Drone controller is set up and ready.

 

Not sure what this will end up as, there seem to be a ton of these in the stores.

The seat back looks a bit like a pipe organ.

Jungle Rally

Troops standby while a drone prepares for take off.

I like to check out the Hot Wheels for potential military vehicles.

I think these may become transports for my Starship Troopers troops.

It comes in at least two color schemes.

Crawling Eye Monsters

Giant space monsters!

The anti-alien troops fight the crawling eye!

A horror from outer space!

Their visage is too horrible.

Fighting to the end.

Terrible monsters on the attack.

Turn spiders upside down and their legs become tentacles, glue the eyeball on top and you have an instant crawling eye monster!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDGwCMcLs_M  

Bug Attack

A peaceful scene in a small village.

Suddenly insects attack!

They are huge!

The troops fire but the bugs are too strong.

Bugs

Dollar Tree Halloween village, 2015.

Not great, but not bad for $1 each and a small village right out of the box.

Always look around when at dollar stores, there could be something interesting looking back at you!

A big bag of big spiders.

A bunch of cheap insects is certainly useful for a variety of scenarios.  Mars Attacks!, Starship Troopers, Them! and others all need big bugs.

Spooky Buildings

Sometimes the Halloween or Christmas buildings need a little work before they can be deployed on the wargame table.

These goofy purple gargoyles are a good example.  Sometimes they can be cut off, or sanded down.  Painting them a different color is sometimes enough.

Other items can be hidden with vegitation, or covered over with epoxy and sculpted into more appropriate designs.

This pair of buildings is not bad as is, no real work required.

At least on these sides.

The small tombstone can be altered into a mailbox, package, or plant life.

This one may need a lot of work!

Spooky Buildings

Last October I was able to pick up a few Halloween buildings at Dollar Tree.

They are a little more spooky than the Christmas buildings.

They also have a lot less snow on them.

I use them for the "bad part of town."

Where some buildings are abandoned or in disrepair.

Pegasus

I visited my friend Larry at Pegasus Hobbies.

The building is built to simulate an airport.

It's one of the few purpose built hobby shops.

They had the new Mars Lander in 1/32nd scale.

It comes with several figures.

It's a big heavy piece of plastic.

It has a detailed interior.

It's cleanly molded and looks great.  http://pegasushobbies.net/catalog/