A few years ago, back in May, 2012 , Soda Pop Minis started a Kickstarter campaign for Tentacle Bento. It managed to raise $30,701 dollars before the lords of Kickstarter pulled the plug on the project, due to the subject matter. You see, Tentacle Bento is a suit matching card game where you take the role of a Tentacle Monster and must use all of your skills to capture more girls than your fellow Tentacle Monsters. Soda Pop bounced back and managed to self crowd fund it afterwards.
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Just like a horrific accident, I was interested in just how "bad & tasteless" it was, especially with all the to-do around how Kickstarter canceled it. Plus even if it wasn't that great of a game, the novelty alone made me want to pick it up. Unfortunately, by the time I was ready to buy it, the game was sold out from Soda Pop's web store. Lucky for me, a friend of mine was headed to PAX and was able to snag a copy of it.
Its not a surprise that I enjoy the crap out of this game. The humor is right up my alley. While there has been a lot of uproar about the theme of the game. There is no violence here and its all very tongue-in-cheek and innuendo filled.
I was super happy to get my hands on the game. But sadly, she was unable to get a hold of the two special edition miniatures of Candy and Marie-Claude. Luckily, Soda Pop has decided that they are going to stay away from exclusive or limited edition miniatures. Which means, they are available
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on their store once again! But, they tend to sell out a lot.
I'd spent a few months watching for the minis to arrive back in stock and debating on ordering the foil card pack to add to my game. But then, Soda Pop announced a brand new deal.
To celebrate the 2nd printing of Tentacle Bento and the release of their new card game, Karate Fight!, Soda Pop offered a bundle. In the bundle, you got the 2nd print run of Tentacle Bento, Karate Fight!, the Tentacle Bento foil pack and Bento Box, plus 4 brand new miniatures with their own additional Tentacle Bento cards! I had to have it, and for the early bird pricing of $60 I had to jump on it.
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The new minis are all pretty solid as well. But there is one that is a cut above the rest and that's the one forthe Tough Cookie Club. It might be because she's wielding a katana and a pistol.. or it could be because her shirt is wide open and has long legs. Either way, while I was waiting for things to dry on the Cyclopean Gemstone Heist, I needed something else to do. And while I could have painted something from Super Dungeon Explore, I decided to work on Tentacle Bento minis instead. So I broke her open and started painting.
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I've been working on skin tones and smoothness as much as possible lately and on this one I knew I wanted a tanned skin tone. So I began there and worked highlights up as I went. But, I really wanted to attempt stockings on her legs. I think they turned out really well, and I even managed to get the seam down the back of the leg.
The next challenge was creating the plaid pattern on her skirt. Normally, I don't like following the official artwork. But with these minis I'm going to keep the school uniforms as close to the official color scheme as possible.
The only problem I ran into with this mini was that my brushes were getting old and worn out. I ended up fighting them more than working with them. That and painting her shirt white was a pain, because I started with a grey base, and I think it should have been a light blue base instead.
Either way, I'm glad I picked up the bundle and it looks like the original minis are back in stock over that their
store now too. So I may need to pick them up soon.