Welcome to the weekend! Here's a bunch of fun SF things we'd like to share with you. Get a coffee in and start clicking:
Item! New cross stitched Dalek patten
Like Doctor Who? Like cross stitching? The August issue of CrossStitcher magazine , one of SFX's many sibling titles, features the pattern for a cross stitched Dalek. It's on sale from Thursday 19 June, and it's been fully approved by the BBC and Terry Nation licensees, and is a pretty cool representation of a Dalek - although how they'd feel about being rendered in soft fabric is anyone's guess. The designer who compiled the stitching chart is a Doctor Who fan and the final crafted pattern measures around 9x8cm. It's in the magazine's children's section, so it's easy enough for beginners to tackle. Why not give it a go?
Item! Dungeons %26 Dragons 4th Edition launch
Next weekend sees the launch of 4th Edition Dungeons %26 Dragons . Have you got your d20 dice lined up ready to go? With the death earlier this year of co-creator Gary Gygax, Dungeons %26 Dragons was back in the public eye, and 7 June sees the global launch of the long-awaited 4th edition (with the addition of a new online, interactive element, enabling classic pen-and-paper games to be enhanced with web tools and content). There are of course new rulebooks and models for traditional play, but also a subscription to Dungeons %26 Dragons Interactive will get you access to a rules database, a character generator, a cool 3D digital tabletop (so you can build a dungeon and then control the movement of virtual miniatures on it), voice chat so you can play with people on the other side of the world, and loads more. You can read a little more about it in the next issue of SFX. The Dungeons %26 Dragons people are the official sponsors of this year's SFX writing competition , you'll recall, which closes in just a couple of days' time - it's only 1000-2000 words, what are you waiting for?
Item! Remember these non-Star Wars toys?
Nostalgia alert! Toplessrobot.com rounds up ten action figures from the 1970s which weren't Star Wars, but which cashed in on the popularity of Star Wars figures. There are some legit figures in there, like toys from Battlestar Galactica and The Black Hole, but also some we'd managed to completely forget about. Check it out here (via SF Signal ).
Don't forget that the new issue of SFX hits the shelves on Wednesday - it's a cracker (loads of cool stuff for fans of The X-Files in particular) so please reserve one at your newsagent to avoid missing out.
