Some more Miniatures Waffle 5

Howdy!
Another break from reflecting on some of the other issues facing us,
to take a moment to appreciate some miniatures.

Did you know that Chess-like games, with miniatures, have been around since Gobekli Tepe times, and older elsewhere? The figures were originally carved from stone and composites, such as clays and muds. Some of those artifacts also contain fragments of hair and skin etc... very interesting features of these ancient minis! It must have taken/take much skill to make such fine art and figures, and this is one of those common touchstones that humanity has: all cultures on earth have made miniature study figures or game figures. Its a fine tradition!
On the larger end of the scale, you've got of course some statues from Ashoka's temple building rush, the terracota soldiers, Egyptian warrior figurines, and the Easter Island heads (which some have speculated might have been a bit like Risk Tokens in addition to being culturally significant 'tiki'/totems). People like their minis!

In a more recent addition, well at least I feel strongly that this is the level of awesome being made,
I requested a goofy lizard space monk replete with space wrench from ExManus Studios, along with an optional extra "I'll fix you!" attitude:
and this is what I got;

 As an outraged customer, I have the right to complain here:
this figure's attitude is too loud, the costume is too accurate, the wrench head is sold separately, oh and the heads are swappable...  (ie, I can get different heads and slot them in snug with ferrous materials so this base mechanic model can be from a bunch of species... how crazy is that?!)

Seriously now though, all satire/joke-age aside: This is one extremely fine lizard goofball that ExManus has made: ExManus Studios has done a fantastic job and I can't wait to get a lick of paint on this thing and start gaming. You can bet your bottom dollar that we wont see this in Imperial Assault or in SWCommand figures, I can tell you that now. Too bad if you wanted a space lizard...
This'll be a good token for my local RPG game of space checkers: "King Me"
I'll say when this is on the table for the first time heh.
The king fixer monk will be on the field, and will probably team up with Paratus (I understand Paratus was apprenticed to this monk, might explain the loopyness of paratus).
If not paratus, then this guy'll be an independent character as per SW40K v3 rules... which is good: it'll make him a sitting duck (if he is goofy enough not to cling to cover) for a CIS strafing run!

Now, on account of someone dropping and completely shattering their Cannon camera,
(butterfingers was yours truly)
We'll have to wait for the upcoming pepakura series, (pepakura dagger, dianoga and morningstars a/b/c anyone? papercraft trifighter too)
the "how to customise" guide and the next update batch of figures. That, and real world will probably gum up the works for the short term (its not a wrench in the works level of mayhem... yet hehe).

Enjoy, and I'll see you next time!

PS: I have some new stuff to ramble about exponentials/variable compounding rates perspectives,
some very funny gaffes in a few places about rates of expansion, and then several cross-comparisons for sources... Al Bartlett said it best about humble rates of modest exponentials... those lectures are dearly treasured, as are Williams's reflections on that in actors masterclasses.