[Lego] So, I just got this Sealed Box of #8364...

... However I actually have to wait a couple of months before I can open it for my bday.

Anyway, if you're a frequent reader of my blog, then you would know about my acquired taste for experimental LEGO® oddities such as this one. As with most sets I write about, this one has been on my radar back when it came out in 2003, but I was unable to purchase it at the time.

I missed out on a couple of sealed boxes on Bricklink in the past couple of years, but that was by choice as I didn't feel like getting it until this year. While every set on my wishlist are sets that I truly want to own one day, it's best when you purchase them when you are in the mood for it. That and someone hoarded all of the damn Droideka's last year so I have to wait longer until I can get my sealed copy at a not-so-outrageous price point. Still waiting for Kardas, too.

That said, "what's this ridiculously large and heavy box all about?"

LEGO® Drome Racers was a lineup done in the early 2000s that lasted several years. Drome Racers was all about a futuristic racing theme set in a country-sized coliseum where several teams competed against each other in various elemental biomes. It ticks all the good stuff from a late 90s/early 2000s LEGO® theme.

The lineup spawned a pretty solid amount of products, a bunch of cool merchandise and arguably the best LEGO® racing game to date. But what makes Drome Racers stand out from the other Racers themes is its excellent variety of good toys with a coherent theming. The lineup produced sets for both System and Technic that (re)introduced us to (surprisingly powerful) pullback motors, remote control and vehicle launchers. But what is possibly the most interesting among the Drome Racers products is that one thing LEGO® never tried again to the same extent: the Track System.

The Track System is basically a track builder where you build a layout from prefab road pieces. There were only three dedicated sets that came at three different sizes. Most of the smaller Drome Racers sets (and even the Xalax that came out the year before it) are compatible with these tracks, but each of these Track System sets are supplied with their own vehicles nonetheless. The pullback motors included in these small vehicles would allow one to use it on these tracks, in which the corresponding play features for these sets are designed around.

Pullback motors are only good for up to a couple of seconds, so the other two sets were designed accordingly with a clear starting point and finish line. However, this set elevates that concept to an entirely different height: by introducing rechargeable batteries for the same vehicle build, complete with a dedicated charger that functions as a separate road piece, specifically designed for the Track System. Thus, enter the Multi Challenge Race Track, set #8364.

Although there isn't much to be found about this particular set since it somewhat fell into obscurity, from the little you can find online: the execution of this particular idea (or Track System in general) isn't flawless. Recharging the vehicles (depending on its age) is only good enough for a couple of laps on the suggested track layout, and having steep slopes on the track drains a lot of battery power. Aside from that: when it runs, it's definitely something like no other.

And that's pretty much the essence of my interest and love in these kind of LEGO® sets as an acquired taste of niches: it's never about judging a LEGO® product for what it is not - it's about what it is, the unique experience only a select few sets can deliver, and what it means to stand out as a timeless milestone in LEGO®'s history of strange oddities in almost a century worth of products. There's nothing like it, and that's why I want it.

[EMS] Level 250!

The twelfth of April

Birthday of Maple Europe

Close to poetic

[EMS] Soul Collector - Mu Gong 6/7!

Well damn, of all EMS blogposts that I didn't expect to write about any time soon, this certainly is one of them.

To call this a small milestone would be an understatement. Long-time readers know that I've been trying to complete the Soul Collection for the Mu Gong Soul for about six years now, shortly after I got my hands on my first Mu Gong Soul back in 2014.

Mu Gong Soul is an anomaly among all souls in MapleStory, and a strange one at that. What this soul offers in terms of stats differs greatly between regional versions. It differs that much that in one version it's considered outright broken, while here in EMS, it's hardly ever discussed as a valid option. I'm currently one of the few in EMS who uses one. It is the only Soul Collection in the game that is considered literally impossible. At least it is for EMS.

Soul Shards usually drop from their respective bosses, even to a point where Nexon goes through the effort of making old shards such as Spirit of Rock still (readily) available in present day, even well after closing the old Kerning Square. If you want to get your hands on any soul from the Soul Collection, you can just grind out the bosses for shards.

But that's only possible for any boss in the game other than Mu Gong.

Mu Gong has ceased dropping Mu Gong shards in 2015, after Ranked Dojo was introduced as a weekly system. Although at the time that was no problem: we had Effie Boxes and the annual Murgoth event to get our hands on Mu Gong Souls (as thoroughly explained here). Plus, we had the prospering thought that the upcoming Soul Extractor would be an excellent all-year round alternative in case we ran out of sources.

But in that band-aid solution lies a fundamental problem. What if they retired Effie Boxes and the annual Murgoth events? What if even the Soul Extractor is a dead end?

Obviously, all of the above happened. Effie Boxes were retired with the migration of 2016, our last Murgoth event was in 2017, and it would take hundreds of billion mesos to craft even a single Mu Gong Soul through the Soul Extractor - let alone the one prefix you need, or the fact that there's not enough supplies in the EMS economy to begin with.

So, how in Maple World did I manage to get my sixth Mu Gong Soul? It's simple: pure coincidence.

This "Flashy Mu Gong Soul" is one that came from those Effie Boxes long ago. At the time, I've been collecting as many Mu Gong Souls as I could find and this just happened to be one of those that unfortunately flew under the radar. So, that means that against all odds:

• This specific soul was found from a short-lived Cash Shop box four years ago...
• Possibly was sold at least once in the Free Market where I failed to buy it before anyone else did...
• The character that held this soul in its inventory was not among the 2,7 million (!) purged characters during the migration period...
• Somehow ended up being listed in the Auction House a few days ago...
• And not only was I able to get in touch with the actual seller of an otherwise anonymous in-game listing, the seller was patient enough as I had to scrape an ungodly amount of mesos together in order to buy this thing as soon as possible, before someone else yoinked it and wasted it for good.

No, I won't discuss the exact number I had to pay for this thing. But I could've bought hundreds of Meister Cubes instead, that much I'm willing to spill. Was it worth the price? Probably not. However, it cannot be denied that this was certainly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I would most certainly regret if I failed to get my hands on this one.

Just for the record: including this instance, I have only come across three "Effie Box Mu Gong Souls" since the migration. One was sold in Auction House last year, and another one was bought by a friend of mine for his own sword. But this was the only one among the three that I required for the collection, and being able to buy it was certainly an unlikely event: a perfect example of a "right time, right place" moment that by all means should not have happened.

Seeing as any of my journeys to complete whatever I feel like always takes a ridiculous amount of years, I suppose one could say that it might be just "another one of those" or "same shit, different day". At any rate, the HP prefix ("Hearty Mu Gong") is the last one I need… and I have absolutely no idea how many additional years that will take.

[Lego] Work in Progress: Hailfire Droid (March 6, 2020)

 

As mentioned last August, I've decided to do a serious attempt at a redesign of my Hailfire Droid in order to get those proportions right. After about 150 hours spread across the past half year and plenty of (expensive) Bricklink orders, I've come to a point in development where I'm ready to write something about it.

 

Literally, the last blogpost regarding my Hailfire Droid has been over three years ago.

 

So, where to start? I think it's best to go chronologically through the process in how I got from the previous iteration to what is currently on my desk. And that starts with the wheel size.

[EMS] Glory - 5th Job's sixth wave!

It's a bit late, but as I've mentioned earlier on my blog, I had no other choice but to park this article until at least February 2020. Gotta admit, this blogpost took way longer to prepare than expected (almost 400 GB worth of video footage to get these GIFs done) and I have experienced finding motivation for finishing this thing after December to be difficult... Anyway, it's here!

With our previous traditional 5th Job wave being (over) a year ago, the Adventure update only introduced us to Pathfinder's 5th Job, so it's been a while since we actually had new stuff to play with. That said, the Glory update gives us a couple of 5th Job skills that are shared among various classes, and as usual I will only focus at the (only) one Hero receives; the skill Maple World Goddess' Blessing. Hero has also received its Skill Link: Invincible Belief.

However, most of this blogpost will actually be about the recent skill changes that happened between Black and Glory. And well... Hero got a bunch of them - so there's a lot to talk about. There are even ones that have yet to arrive in EMS as of the time of writing, but I'll save those for the next "skill wave blogpost". Let's start with the skill changes first.