Cities or Planets?

[Paul Kian]

Hi fellow Coaches and Forumites,

I tried to make this a poll, but it threw a bunch of errors at me so I guess it'll be easier to ask it as a regular post then. Might be some foreshadowing, I dunno....🤷🏻‍♂️

Anyhow, I currently have 8 teams of prepainted EF figures- I know, I'm cheating a bit, but I work a 9-5 so I'll take any help I can get. 😁 When I originally purchased them, I was planning on doing the traditional City/State/Country Team Name and then a Mascot for each team. I had the following eight names picked out:

-->Canadian Shield - Ottawa, Ontario, CAN

-->Portland Bluebacks (a type of trout popular in New England) - Portland, Maine, USA

-->Saint Pierre et Miquelon Les Pecheurs (which means "Fishermen" or "Anglers" in French) - St. Pierre, SP&M, France

-->Victoria Regimentals - Victoria, British Columbia, CAN

-->Phoenix Pharaohs - Phoenix, AZ

-->Knoxville Pioneers - Knoxville, TN

-->Lexington Thoroughbreds - Lexington, KY

-->Reno R.A.D.s (as in the unit of radioactivity, also short for "RadioActive Dudes") - Reno, NV

However, while driving between job sites one fine Friday afternoon, I remembered an old video game I used to play as a kid called Mutant League Football- they also made a hockey video game and cartoon based off of the same idea. In this game, you played football as usual but with teams composed of aliens, skeletons, robots, trolls, etc. in outer space and on other planets.

It got me to thinking, "hey, there are 8 extraterrestrial planets, cuz I don't care what some too-big-for-their-britches-scientists say, Pluto is still a planet, and I have 8 teams. I also haven't ordered my field covers yet...."

So, I guess the short and sweet of this is, which do you guys think would be cooler- teams named after cities/states/countries and mascots, or teams named after the 8 Planets?

Thanks for your input! I'll make sure to put up plenty of pictures of the figures and fields once they're finished being decaled. 😊

[RickLM30]

I like the names you already picked, but my vote goes to the planets! I also agree that Pluto is a planet and a dog (see Mickey Mouse for you youngsters)! 😊

[Paul Kian]

11 minutes ago, RickLM30 said:

I like the names you already picked, but my vote goes to the planets! I also agree that Pluto is a planet and a dog (see Mickey Mouse for you youngsters)! 😊

Thanks for your vote, Rick! It's funny that you mentioned the dog, I was debating on getting a mini Pluto figure for the mascot/coach, and a Marvin the Martian for Mars (I hope Ravenna Al doesn't mind, I think he has a similar team. 😁)

[nefgm.org]

Personally I like the City/State/Country.  GO Knoxville Pioneers!!! With a little research found out there was an actual Knoxville Pioneers Minor League Baseball team in the early 1920's. I am going to do a Knoxville Bears team for a solitaire league that actually played minor league football in the 1960's.   

[Paul Kian]

2 minutes ago, nefgm.org said:

Personally I like the City/State/Country.  GO Knoxville Pioneers!!! With a little research found out there was an actual Knoxville Pioneers Minor League Baseball team in the early 1920's. I am going to do a Knoxville Bears team for a solitaire league that actually played minor league football in the 1960's.   

Thank you for your vote! That's cool that there was an actual team named the Pioneers. I actually kind of ripped off the Pioneers name from the original proposed name for the Titans when they first left Houston. I think the Tennessee Pioneers would have been a cool name; Titans just seems too generic, but heck I was even fine with them staying the Tenn. Oilers so what do I know? I mean the Lakers and Jazz didn't change their mascots despite them making no sense. 😆

 

Can't wait to see your K-Bears team, take plenty of pics if you can! 😊

[nefgm.org]

Yeah, I wanted them to stay the Oilers too. My Solitaire League is going to be the Tennessee Professional Electric Football League. 

TnPEFL Logo.pdf

[Paul Kian]

3 minutes ago, nefgm.org said:

Yeah, I wanted them to stay the Oilers too. My Solitaire League is going to be the Tennessee Professional Electric Football League. 

TnPEFL Logo.pdf 459.83 kB · 1 download

Wow that's a super professional looking layout! I will definitely be following your League. 👍

I actually went to school outside of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians reservation and took a couple semesters of the language, so if you need any cool Cherokee syllabary stuff for the Chattanooga team I'd be happy to help. 😁

[nefgm.org]

That's Cool!! Appreciate it. Don't have a clue about what I would need, but thanks. 

[Troutbum]

WCU?

[Paul Kian]

19 minutes ago, Troutbum said:

WCU?

Yep, I was a Catamount. 😁 Did you go to Western as well?

Edited August 28, 2020 by Paul Kian

[Paul Kian]

3 hours ago, nefgm.org said:

That's Cool!! Appreciate it. Don't have a clue about what I would need, but thanks. 

I'm not sure how in depth you're going with your set up, but I was thinking about if you put up any Sideboards with decals or anything. I know every November my college (Western Carolina) would do a couple Native American appreciation football games and put up banners, programs, helmet decals, etc in the Cherokee Syllabary. It was pretty cool looking.

They also briefly had shirts printed up that said "ᎧᎩᏳᏍᏗ ᏣᏙᏓ (Kagiyusdi Tsadoda)", which roughly translates to "Who's your Daddy?!" But the chancellor wasn't very happy about that....😆

Edited August 28, 2020 by Paul Kian

[Paul Kian]

Also, if anyone is interested in the video game, here's a video and a link to the Wikipedia page. 😊

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutant_League_Football

 

https://youtu.be/CCPrBFokTLo

[Troutbum]

I live in Haywood County, but my daughter is a senior at Western. I teach Southern Appalachian History at Tuscola (Cherokee for "digging in many places") High school, and I have my students do a Cherokee syllabary project. Although not Cherokee myself, I do "go to water" every chance I get! 

[Paul Kian]

1 minute ago, Troutbum said:

I live in Haywood County, but my daughter is a senior at Western. I teach Southern Appalachian History at Tuscola (Cherokee for "digging in many places") High school, and I have my students do a Cherokee syllabary project. Although not Cherokee myself, I do "go to water" every chance I get! 

Small world, I know exactly where Tuscola High School is! I used to live in Bryson City during my senior year at Western, as I was a legal intern for a law firm there. I used to go to Waynesville (and Lake Junaluska) quite frequently on the weekends to busk with my guitar. If you ever saw a long black-haired guy in a flat cap, blue plaid jacket, and playing cheesy cover songs on an acoustic 12 string (usually on the benches around North Main Street) circa 2013/14, it was probably me. 😁

If I ever get the urge to leave my current location in Central NC, I'd seriously consider moving to Waynesville. It's a beautiful town. My Cherokee professor would also be super pleased to hear that you are doing projects with the syllabary. 😊

[Troutbum]

Love Bryson City! I probably saw/heard you on main street at least once - I'm a Mast General Store regular.

[Paul Kian]

Yep, I've been in there at least a couple times. I'm not sure if I ever bought anything- if I did, it was probably candy. 😁

I like the sub place that's nearby as well, I think it's called Smoky Mountain subs or something like that (it's been almost six years lol).

My favorite spot in Waynesville was near a median in the road that had a nice comfy bench on the sidewalk. I wish I could remember exactly where it was, or at least a nearby landmark, so I can go there again. I made 70 bucks there one night- that's more than I ever made in Raleigh. 😊

[Paul Kian]

After some further rumination, I have decided that I'm going to keep the figures I have right now as the Cities and Countries option.

However, I'm going to buy some Mean 13 figures this Winter and make "Planet" teams out of those - that way, I can pick my own color schemes verses having to stay within the limits of the prepainted figs I bought.

Thanks again to everyone for your vote! I will get plenty of pics and details on the Teams as I'm finishing them up, and I'll have a separate post where you all can offer suggestions on color schemes and such for them. 👍

Edited September 10, 2020 by Paul Kian

[Ravenna Al]

Somehow I missed this whole post until now. I like the planets idea, too  I just remembered that there are figures for a game called Heroclix and Horrorclix that you might want to look into. I was at the hobby store a few years back looking for some paint and brushes and came across a display that had a few figures. One of them was a Werewolf which gave me the idea to make Weirdwolf's Werewolves. They had exactly 11 figures so I bought them all and made a team out of them. All I had to do was cut off the circle base that they were on, and glue (epoxy) them onto the stands of some broken and disfigured figures that I had. I see now that they have most all of the super heroes like Spiderman, the Hulk and the Fantastic Four, as well as Alien and Predator figures. I had actually started to make some Aliens figures some years back, but forgot about them. A fellow EF'er named Walt Garrison gave me his Commando team and I use them with the Werewolves. They are a lot of fun to play with and look pretty cool too. Check them out! 

[Paul Kian]

7 hours ago, Ravenna Al said:

Somehow I missed this whole post until now. I like the planets idea, too  I just remembered that there are figures for a game called Heroclix and Horrorclix that you might want to look into. I was at the hobby store a few years back looking for some paint and brushes and came across a display that had a few figures. One of them was a Werewolf which gave me the idea to make Weirdwolf's Werewolves. They had exactly 11 figures so I bought them all and made a team out of them. All I had to do was cut off the circle base that they were on, and glue (epoxy) them onto the stands of some broken and disfigured figures that I had. I see now that they have most all of the super heroes like Spiderman, the Hulk and the Fantastic Four, as well as Alien and Predator figures. I had actually started to make some Aliens figures some years back, but forgot about them. A fellow EF'er named Walt Garrison gave me his Commando team and I use them with the Werewolves. They are a lot of fun to play with and look pretty cool too. Check them out! 

Awesome, I will look into them. My friend plays Dungeons and Dragons, and while I'm not really interested in the game itself, he does paint some pretty cool miniatures and custom dice. I will have to ask him where he gets the miniatures from.