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Overdue Who Review: Nightmare of Eden

Season 17, 1979, 4 parts, Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker)

Due to poor navigation, two different space ships (a cruise ship and a trade ship) are interlocked, and The Doctor offers to help. However a zoologist on the cruise ship, recently back from the planet Eden, has a device that stores portions of planets on crystals and displays them as projections. A euphoric drug is making the rounds on the ship and monsters loosed from the Eden projection – which is less of a projection and more of a gateway – are the unwilling couriers of the drug running scheme between two baddies.

This one’s a bit of a slog. As is often the case, there’s a fair amount of technobabble workarounds to shore up the plot. The zoologist Tryst is played by an Australian actor who I think is trying to do a German accent? It’s all very weird and he reminds me of a high school teacher for some reason – at least that garnered my interest.

Next: The Horns of Nimon

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20 Minute Monster Series: Monster Manual II

uploads still in progress

Blue Behir upon a bisected boulder bravely defending her brood of babies, breathing blasts of lightning

Choke Creeper as seen in the D&D cartoon episode “The Garden of Zinn”

Eagle, Eel and Elf

Froghemoth

Gibbering Mouther

Hollyphant

Janni

Kraken

Lycanthrope (Foxwoman)

Modron

Nereid on a Nautilus

Oliphant (featuring Venger)

Phoenix

Quickling

Raven (featuring Hank the ranger from the D&D cartoon)

Spectator (featuring Zandora the sorceress from the D&D cartoon)

Tarrasque

Urchin (featuring Uni from the D&D cartoon)

Vegepygmy riding a thorny

Wemic

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Naoshima, Little Island with Lots of Art!

As wikipedia says – Naoshima is an island in Japan’s Seto Inland Sea, part of Kagawa Prefecture. The island is best known for its many contemporary art installations and museums.

Don’t visit on a Monday! The galleries are closed! We learned this the hard way.

There it is!!

Getting there

The closest city with a JR station is Okayama, a cool place with lots of its own destinations (like a castle) which I will blog about another time.

If you happen to be doing a day trip from Okayama, you’ll want to leave as early as you can because it will take at least 1.5 hours transit time to get there, and the ferry schedule is limited. And be sure you plan your trip back as well to ensure you have enough time and aren’t rushing.

Uno Station

There are two ferry docks, one that takes cars and one for foot passengers only. The food passenger one is smaller, obviously, and I think it’s faster, and is actually less comfortable.

Getting Around

If you arrive in Miyanoura Port, make sure you check out Marine Station, they had a special pumpkin cream puff/macaron type thing. You’ll have to buy the ticket at the vending machine and hand the ticket to the clerk to get your sweet treat. We’ll check back later to see how that went for me 😀

Macaron, not macaroon!

Right at the ferry port, you can see artist Yayoi Kusama’s red pumpkin. You can go inside it!

Another piece of art!
Different perspective of the red pumpkin

I expect you could rent a car or something but we went with bicycles. During the off season (December/January) the only Bike Rental place that’s open is Ougiya. Make sure you check the tires, brakes, etc – mine required a bit of tweaking before we rolled out.

map is provided by the Ougiya bike rental place.
I thought this was an villains lair but turns out it is a high school
Found the heron from that Miyazaki film!
Glam trucks are a thing in Japan

On the opposite side of the island, at Honmura Port, you can find some giant bubbles in which to park your bike, if you are so inclined. Designed by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nihsizawa. Fun stuff!

Naoshima Noodles

Right next to a supermarket (Mitsubishi Materials Naoshima Co-op) there’s a little ramen place called Naoshima Noodles [google link]. We arrived just before lunch and the place was completely empty. We struggled a bit trying to decipher the ticket machine that you use to place your order, but there is an English menu available to help you translate – just ask for it! Just a few minutes after we got our ramen, hordes of salarymen came in to crowd the place.

From here we rode our bikes up a winding steep hill to get to the “Amazing View Spot” on the map above. It was a bit rough, even with electric-assist bikes! But we made it! There’s an orange pumpkin down there somewhere….

Down the hill (scary slope and curves – ride slow) we found Tsutsuji-So Seaside Park. There’s a bus stop here and a beach! Must be nice when it’s not JANUARY!

Yes you can get beer from the vending machine! I guess you don’t need ID?
Do you see the giant pumpkin?

Time to try my pumpkin macaron – pretty good! Very rich and sweet, a bit of a trial to finish the whole thing by myself.

Artsy

Plants!

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Akihabara Tokyo (Toren’s Travels)

Previously: Jimbocho (Book Town)

The area in tokyo gained the nickname Akihabara Electric Town (秋葉原電気街, Akihabara Denki Gai) shortly after World War II for being a major shopping center for household electronic goods and the post-war black market. The name Akihabara is a shortening of Akibagahara, which comes from Akiba, named after a fire-controlling deity of a firefighting shrine built after the area was destroyed by a fire in 1869.[

Akihabara is considered by many to be the centre of Japanese otaku culture, and is a major shopping district for video games, anime, manga, electronics and computer-related goods. Icons from popular anime and manga are displayed prominently on the shops in the area, and numerous maid cafés and some arcades are found throughout the district.

2025 – my second visit to this neighborhood! (First time was 2019)

Right next to the JR Train station, YODOBASHI CAMERA Akiba is the largest electronics store in Japan and has 9 floors including restaurants and a batting cage – but the 6th floor is where I spent most of my time for obvious reasons:

Here’s a walkthrough video (not mine)

No less nerdy is Akihabara Radiokaikan, just a five minute walk to the West

I bought a few Ultraman monsters and I don’t regret it! Here’s a walkthrough video (also not mine)

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Booktown, Japan (Jinbocho, Tokyo)

So you’re in Tokyo and you’re wondering where’s a good place to get used books? Well by golly I’ll tell you –

KANDA-JINBOCHO (aka JIMBOCHO)

Jinbocho has its own subway station and is 2 stops away from the famous Akihabara station, it’s about a 16 minute ride.

It’s about a 15 minute walk from Tokyo Dome! Which has a theme park…

The roller coaster actually pokes out over the building above the sidewalk which, as a pedestrian is… disconcerting

Fun things we saw on our walk included stumbling across Anitouch petting zoo, where you can pet capybara, ring-tailed lemur, meerkat, and more typical farm animals (it was a bit sad seeing meerkats who wanted to dig in the dirt but they were trapped in a plastic area) and the Cappy Cafe – where it looks like they might be selling capybara burgers? Nah… probably just the name. Right?

There’s a Mos Burger nearby! Try the matcha shake, it’s not too bad! And of course the rice burger (the bun is made out of rice, there were only 2 on the menu and they were hidden out of the way, but they had them). There was also a frozen dessert that was really REALLY frozen and I had to let it melt a bit in my warm hand before the tiny plastic spoon could dent it

tokyo jimbocho mos burger
tokyo jimbocho mos burger
tokyo jimbocho mos burger matcha shake and frozen dessert
tokyo jimbocho mos burger matcha shake and frozen dessert

There’s tons of book stores around…

But the best one was definitely:

Komiyama Bookstore Tokyo

Which had multiple floors packed with cool books and tons of amazing art!

These photos are NOT from Komiyama Tokya Gallery, which is another location a few blocks to the East.

Around the corner we had tonkatsu at Butadaigaku Tonkatsugakubu, where you order at the machine by the door and they have a delicious mustard you can put on your tonkatsu! I forgot to take a photo of my meal before I ate it, but you can imagine

And here’s a photo of a random old style storefront, which I find aesthetically pleasing

Just your average old school Tokyo store front

Next: Return to AKIHABARA

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It’s the Most Discounty Time of the Year – Original D&D & other TTRPG Art! Hexmas Sale

These original pencil drawings (and a couple of inks) were produced for various D&D and other RPG books and are marked down from now until Christmas.

Everything listed here is on offer for $50 USD (unless you’re in Vancouver and we can arrange in person, then $50 CAD)

CONTACT ME at :

You can see more D&D art going all the way back to AD&D/2nd edition at https://torenatkinson.com/dungeons-and-dragons-original-art/ and I’ll be giving discounts on offsale stuff too if you buy two or more pieces!

Oh, you wanted Cthulhu art instead? Ok: https://torenatkinson.com/artwork/original-art-for-sale/

Shipping to the US is typically $20 and that includes tracking and stiffening boards for maximum protection.

Arbalest

From Terror in Freeport – Reikert

From If Thoughts Could Kill (Monte Cook/Malhavoc Press) – crystal consciousness amulet

From Egyptian Adventures: Hamunaptra (3.5 edition, Green Ronin)

Skull & Bones (Green Ronin)

From BONDS OF MAGIC (Malhavoc Press)

From THIEVES WORLD GAZETEER (Green Ronin)

Demonologist (slight blemish from ink bleed through on left edge)

BOOK OF ELDRITCH MIGHT

From MINDSCAPES: BEASTS OF THE ID (Malhavoc Press)

From CAVALIER HANDBOOK (Green Ronin)

Cults of Freeport (Green Ronin)

From Temple Quarter (Game Mechanics/Green Ronin)

From Advanced Players Manual (Green Ronin)

From Advanced Bestiary (Green Ronin 2004)

From Minions (Chaosium, Call of Cthulhu)

From Monte Cook Presents: Year’s Best d20 (Malhavoc Press)

From Shaman’s Handbook (Green Ronin)

From Wrath and Rage: A Guidebook to Orcs, published by Green Ronin

From Spaceship Zero: The Roleplaying Game (2001 Green Ronin)

From Liber Bestarius (Eden Studios 2003)

From Black Sails Over Freeport (Green Ronin)

From MONSTERS OF THE MIND (Green Ronin)

From Book of the Righteous (Green Ronin)

From Monte Cook’s Arcana Unearthed D&D 3rd edition pencil on paper

From Bastards & Bloodlines D&D 3rd edition (Green Ronin Publishing) pencil on paper:

From Black Company (Green Ronin Publishing):

Book of Fiends (Green Ronin Publishing)

Aasimar and Tiefling: A Guidebook to the Planetouched (Green Ronin)

Mindshadows (Green Ronin)

Noble’s Handbook (Green Ronin)

From ORK! The Roleplaying Game (Green Ronin)

From Chaositech (Malhavoc Press)

From Creature Collection (White Wolf)

From Jade Dragons and Hungry Ghosts (Green Ronin)

From Creatures of Freeport (Green Ronin)

From Denizens of Freeport (Green Ronin)

from Touched by the Gods (Atlas Games)

From Thieves World (Green Ronin)

From THIEVES QUARTER (Game Mechanics)

from Unholy Warrior’s Handbook (Green Ronin)

From HARP (High Adventure Roleplaying Game – Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE)

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2025 The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets Cthulhu Calendar

Back in 1996 and 1997 we, the band, compiled a couple of what we called “Cyber-Cthulhu” Calendars. Why cyber? Oh, probably because of this drawing I did

I’ve been toying with the idea of putting out another Thickets calendar for several years and this year I FINALLY pulled the trigger. At first I thought I would do it on threadless, where you can get the rest of our merch like t-shirts, but threadless does not offer a 12 month calendar. So I looked elsewhere and settled on Zazzle. AND HERE’S THE LINK:

https://www.zazzle.ca/ye_olde_thickets_calendar_2025-256690516867383066

Zazzle is a US-based company and some of my local buyers here in BC tipped me off to the fact that zazzle was cancelling their orders. (I myself was able to order with no problem). Zazzle customer service hasn’t been super helpful so I thought I had better do a print run here in Vancouver to hedge some bets. Today I looked at the proof and everything looks great!

This calendar is actually a bit different than the zazzle printing. Because zazzle rejected the AMAZING Chris Woods painting of the band in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon from our first CD Cthulhu Strikes Back (you can see the image above), we replaced it with my rendition of Where the Great Old Ones Are

If you are in the general zone of Vancouver and would like to connect, I’m happy to sell you this very LIMITED EDITION calendar! $20 cash or etransfer, just contact me on my socials or at this email

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Overdue Who Review: The Horn of Nimon

Season 17, 1979, 4 parts, Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker)

Stilted minotaur aliens with laser horns dupe an impotent militaristic planet (Skonnos) into letting them invade via a black hole. The Nimon emissary’s workshop is a maze that constantly reconfigures itself for a hand-wavy reason. The leader of Skonnos looks like Jonathan Price and wins the award for most outrageously hammy acting in the series… so far. Not recommended.

Next: Shada

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See You At KamCon 2024!

Woohoo! I’m a special GUEST OF HONOUR at year’s KamCon! Check out the art I provided of our Dread Lord Cthulhu

It will also be available on this amazing dice tray thanks to Crits n Bones

WHAT I’M DOING AT THE CONVENTION:

Firstly I’ll have a table in the Vendor Hall, where I’ll be selling some of my original D&D art, The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets CDS and paraphernalia including some Spaceship Zero comics, and prints of this handsome entity:

SCHEDULED EVENTS:

SATURDAY 11am RPG Writers panel With Seth Skorkowski, Jon Hook, Toren Atkinson, Douglas Lloyd, William McAusland, Connor Heighton and Moderated by James Droucker.

SATURDAY 6:30pm TASKMASTER!

SATURDAY 8pm I’m running SPACESHIP ZERO THE RPG in the Mountain Room, Table K

SUNDAY 11am: YouTube and Content creator panel  With Seth Skorkowsky and Toren Atkinson, moderated by James Droucker

SUNDAY 5:30pm GM Styles and World Building panel  With Seth Skorkowsky, Toren Atkinson, Jon Hook, Lee Ann Spiller, Nigel Beardwood, Marcus Pelletier and moderated by James Droucker