Tag: Asp Army

  • Ender’s Game Battle School Cupcakes

    Ender’s Game Battle School Cupcakes

    Ender-Cupcakes6

    Happy Monday, Launchies! This past weekend I got motivated to do some Ender’s Game cupcakes. The army logos are great for doing fan artsy stuff and since I do a lot of these kinds of cupcake things for my other blog Fictional Food, it was really only a matter of time until I tried to tackle these.

    And for those of you wondering where Leopard and Centipede is, just go look at those logos and tell me if you think it’s humanly possible to cut those things out of fondant. šŸ˜‰

    To make the logos, I rolled black fondant really thin and then let it dry for a bit to make it easier to cut. I’d printed out the logos on paper and cut them out first. For Phoenix and Griffin, I used a photo from the Ender’s Game Experience I found online, since my good photos of the logos got eaten on my corrupted SD card.

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    After that, I laid them over the frosting and started cutting with an X-Acto knife. Sadly, the paper got stuck to Phoenix and Salamander, which is why those don’t look too good.

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    Here are the logos all cut out and drying. The white stuff is powdered sugar to keep it from sticking to the bottom.

    Since I only had Halloween cupcake cups, they would have looked kind of dopey from the sides, so I made cupcake wrappers. I first did these kinds of wrappers for my Effie Trinket cupcakes and they worked really well for these too!

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    If you want to try wrapping your own cupcakes, I have the wrappers in PDF formĀ for you to download. They may need a little trimming and you’ll also need to leave a little tab on one end to glue/tape together.

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    Here’s the side of the Dragon cupcake. I put book and movie quotes on the opposite sides of each of them.

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    I don’t think Graff likes me insinuating he’s a “rat” by putting him on the Rat Army cupcake…

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    Here’s the Salamander cupcake. It’s still got little bits of sugar on it and his poor tail fell off. It was too hard to separate the belly sections, so I just cut into the frosting and it turned out fine. To make this color I used green fondant mixed with gobs of yellow and orange color gel.

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    Griffin Army cupcake! The ear was hard to cut, but I like how it came out overall. I should have made it bigger though. This was just straight green, nice and easy.

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    As I mentioned earlier, the Phoenix got a little dinged up. I didn’t pat enough sugar onto it and the paper got stuck to the frosting. The color was made by mixing blue and green fondant.

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    Rat Army cupcake. I thought the whiskers and toes would be impossible, but they weren’t too bad. I just used basic red fondant for this. If you’re wondering why I have so many colors, it’s from making cakes like this Mario one for my son and this Hello Kitty one for my daughter. I just have a fully stocked fondant pantry!

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    Here’s Asp, which was pretty hard to cut. This is one of my favorite logos. Totally reminds me of the auryn from Neverending Story.

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    And finally, here’s the Dragon. Still my favorite design! Tonight I’ll take some more photos and then let my kids fight over which cupcake they get. This morning my son was giving me a hard time because I always freak out with them touching my stuff before I get to do photos and video. He was barely touching one with his pinky and taunting me, saying, “Ooohh look Mommy, look look! I’m touching the cupcake, oh no!!!”

    The kid needs some sitting on. This is on the agenda for tonight. I took video so you guys can see the wrappers better and will post that later this week.

    Here’s one last photo with the poster:

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    I could go into a number of dorky lines for these.

    “The enemy’s cake is down.”

    “We need cakes like yours, Ender.”

    “You will be the one to frost mankind.”

    I’m sure Graff would have gotten appropriately fat if I’d been supplying these to him at Battle School.

     

     

  • Reminder: Take the Battle School Aptitude Test

    Reminder: Take the Battle School Aptitude Test

    Aptitude

     

    This is a friendly reminder to take the Battle School aptitude test at IF-BattleSchool.comĀ to get your army assignment, Launchies!

    Not sure if it was there when it first launched, but at the top of the site is a notice that the first “challenge” will commence on 8/2. That’s this Friday! What do you guys think we’ll be doing? What do youĀ want it to be?

    Also, here are the four Facebook cover images that they provide in case you want to use them:

    Asp

    Dragon

    Rat

    Salamander

  • Sneak Peek at ‘Ender’s Game’ San Diego Comic Con Promo Items

    Sneak Peek at ‘Ender’s Game’ San Diego Comic Con Promo Items

    San Diego Comic Con is just over two weeks away and Summit has sent us a preview of the exclusive items they’ll be giving away at the convention!

    These are static clings. Notice there are a total of eight army logos including what I’m presuming is Centipede, Griffin, Phoenix, and Leopard in addition to the ones we already know. These will be given out at the Summit booth.

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    This Ender’s Game tote bag will be given out at the Summit booth. No doubt to be used to fill will awesome static clings and…

     

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    Lapel pins! In case you can’t tell, these are little pins stuck to Ender’s Game card backs. These will be given out at the Summit booth.

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    These bad boys will be given out at the Ender’s Game Fan Experience, which will be across the street from the convention at the Hilton Gaslamp.

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    15 days, Launchies!

  • DIY Battle School Nails

    DIY Battle School Nails

    Even with two kids and more blogs than I know what to do with, I clearly have nothing better to do than to think up ways to show what a ridiculous fangirl I can be. Last week, while trying to figure out a way to save money on those silly little stickers my daughter is always begging me to buy her, I decided to look up whether you can print your own nail decals. Turns out, you definitely can.

    I ordered a set and then the Ender’s Game part of my brain started churning and this happened:

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    I made teeny ones for smaller fingers and bigger ones for thumbs, with the little ones being 1/4 inch and the thumbs being 1/2 inch.

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    The next step is to coat the printout with clear nail polish, though this became tricky as the ink began to run with strokes. I had to dab and will have to look into just getting an acrylic spray for the whole sheet. I waited for it to dry and painted my nails in various Battle School colors: orange, blue, red, green.

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    Once they were dry I cut the edges off. Actually, I got lazy on the second hand and left the corners, but you’ll be able to see why this is a bad idea.

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    Next, submerge it in a bit of warm water. Once the paper backing is soaked, you can remove it from the water to a paper towel and gently peel it off the paper.

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    Here’s the tiny little decal ready to put on a nail.

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    Flatten the decal down and then paint over with clear polish.

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    Here’s my right hand and you can see the corners on the three small army nails. Definitely take the time to cut the corners off! And yes, I know, my nails are kind of sad looking. I only just recently grew them out after like 30 years and my daughter’s constant scolding. I don’t know why but I had the hardest time with the IF decals and they both went on horribly crooked.

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    My first attempt on my left hand was ridiculous. I made the Rat and Asp upside down, but the Dragon looked okay. All in all, it’s pretty close to what I’d envisioned. Petra Arkanian would scream in horror, no doubt.

    I’m hoping to take the thumbnail sizes with me to Comic Con and anyone who can find me while I’m waiting in the Hall H line can get a Battle School thumbnail. If you’re willing to give me a thumbs up pose for the EnderWiggin.net Instagram, that’d be sweet!

  • Results: Egg Battle School

    Results: Egg Battle School

    Those of you that commented and guessed the results of the Egg Army fights can now view the results here. Winners are announced under the video!

    Sadly, I suspect my kids’ Egg Launchie status skewed the results a bit, so everyone who commented got at least one entry.

    Random winners drawn from all entries:

    • Hannah Craswell
    • Rick Metcalf
    • Liam

    Since there’s no contact info for Rick and Hannah, you guys will have to email me at valentine @ enderwiggin.net with your address information to claim your prize! Congratulations!

  • Happy Easter from EnderWiggin.net!

    Happy Easter from EnderWiggin.net!

    Happy Easter, Launchies! Hope everyone is having a fun day today. My family dyed eggs earlier and I reserved four for myself to decorate Ender’s Game style!

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    I made one for each army logo released so far, Dragon, Salamander, Rat, and Asp. I had some printouts from making buttons and so I had it in front of me while I sketched into the eggs with a pencil then I colored it in with a sharpie pen. Here’s a look at each egg individually:

    Dragon:

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    Salamander:

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    Rat:

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    Asp:

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    We probably can’t eat these because I used a sharpie, but it was still worth it. We’re about to go outside and have our hunt with the kids and I’ll make sure I hide these well. Whoever finds Dragon Army gets a chocolate bunny!

     

  • Download Asp Army Wallpapers

    Download Asp Army Wallpapers

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    Hey launchies! I’ve got Asp Army wallpapers now available for you to download on the wallpapers page. I’ve also replaced the Salamander Army one with the same design as Dragon and Asp.

    Despite the coolness of both Dragon and Salamander, I think Asp is my favorite logo, mostly because I love blue.

    Today is the last day to enter the EnderWiggin.net logo pin/magnet giveaway!

  • ‘Ender’s Game’ Still Breakdown: Battle School Mess Hall

    ‘Ender’s Game’ Still Breakdown: Battle School Mess Hall

    I’m thinking the same thing you guys are. Finally something new! Now that we have a new still to pick apart, let’s get started shall we? You can click any image to see a bigger one.

    First, the full image:

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    With only the expression on their faces to go by, I’d guess this is when Petra first offers to show Ender what she knows in the Battle Room on their own time. At this point they’re all in Salamander, Ender’s first army, so it’s a safe bet. They’re in the Battle School mess hall, which shows at least five or six teams and a Launchie. It’s possible that Fly Molo is in this image as well, sitting on the far table on the right end.

    The other boys were talking about thingsā€”the big scoreboard on one wall, the food, the bigger kids. Ender could only watch in isolation. The scoreboards were team standings. Win-loss records, with the most recent scores. Some of the bigger boys apparently had bets on the most recent games. Two teams, Manticore and Asp, had no recent scoreā€”these boxes were flashing. Ender decided they must be playing right now.

    Rat and Asp are on the board and therefore currently in the Battle Room, so I’m assuming the red patch on the soldier in the middle is actually for another army, despite the logo looking very similar to Rat. On the far right, you can see a group with teal patches and a guy with a darker red logo, though he could be in the same army as the red patches in the middle. Update: I received a tip that the dark red patched soldier is Cameron Gaskins, who plays Leopard Army commander Pol Slattery.

    On the left, the bright yellow color of the Launchies. The scoreboard differs a bit from the book in that it doesn’t seem to list the standings of all the armies, but I do love that the Battle Room’s layout is in the center.

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    You can see the matching colors on both sides of the sphere, so these have to be the gates. The white obstacles floating around being the star configuration of that particular battle. Next to each army logo you can see several meters.

    Next to the vertical meter are what appear to be soldier profiles of them taken in the plain whites we saw Ender wearing in the first still. It’s possible these swap screens in and out with the rest of the army because I think we asked how big each army was and although I don’t remember what it was, I know it wasn’t 8.

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    I’m not sure what this is, but my guess would be it’s the top three soldiers in each army. There are 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places on both sides of the board with a line graph. Shooting record perhaps?

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    If you’re wondering why I’m zooming in on what I’m assuming is Battle School breakfast, it’s because I want to try to recreate this for my blog Fictional Food. I even found and ordered one of these trays on Amazon already! It’s a lot shinier, but I’m pretty sure it’s the exact same model.

    I can’t say I’m all that impressed with Battle School lunches. They have what looks like an energy bar as the main course, a pastry, gelatin, a green pudding, and a small loaf of bread. Is this really enough calories for a school of teenagers? Maybe the energy bar is packed with tons of protein.

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    Zooming in on Petra, you get to see the Salamander army patch on her arm, which doesn’t appear to be sewn on. It looks textured too, which makes me want one even more. Her nametag says Arkanian.

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    A few soldiers down from Petra at the other end of the table is Bonzo. His food appears to be untouched and he’s just sitting there staring either at something off the table or just at his hands. What do you guys make of his posture in this still? He looks like a bit of a loner in this one.

    I can spot at least six girls in this still based upon hair buns, which is interesting as I would have thought they’d have the girls cut their hair short as well.

    That’s all I’ve got for this one. Do you guys notice anything else interesting? It’s such a busy image and I wish we could see the board more in focus, but clearly the blur is intentional at this point. I can’t wait for more!

  • GIVEAWAY: 2 Sets of Ender’s Game Army Buttons/Magnets

    GIVEAWAY: 2 Sets of Ender’s Game Army Buttons/Magnets

    Have the logos gotten you all excited about Ender’s Game? Today, four fansites released official army logos for Dragon, Salamander, Asp, and Rat armies and now I’ve got some prizes to give away to two lucky fans!

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    I’ve got up for grabs one set of four army magnets and one set of four army pinback buttons. These are not official merchandise, but wouldn’t you love to have them anyway? I’ve already got a set on my fridge, looking awesome!

    Army-Logos

    To enter to win, simply comment on this post and tell me which of the four logos is your favorite and why. Then, use the Rafflecopter widget below to log in your entries and to get yourself some extra entries to up your chances.

    This giveaway is open worldwide and will end on February 27, 2013. Limit one prize per person.

    a Rafflecopter giveaway