Tag Archives: Parachute Panda

Next Meeting, 2nd September 2025

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 2nd September 2025.  As usual, we will start playing shorter games from 7.30pm as people arrive, until 8pm when we will start something a little longer.  Following a recent change of hands, the pub is now doing food again, so those that will be eating will be arriving from around 6.30pm.

This week, the “Feature Game” will be Parachute Panda (one review and another review).  This is a light, fun little filler game with a bit of take that, cute artwork and, of course, lots of pandas…

Parachute Panda
– Image by BGG Contributor W. Eric Martin, adapted by boardGOATS

And speaking of pandas…

Jeff walked into a bar with his pet panda. It was about 5pm, but they were ready for a good night of drinking. They started slowly, watching the Magpies play on the TV, drinking beer and eating peanuts. As the night went on, they moved to mixed drinks, and then shots, necking one after another. Finally, the barman called, “Last orders,” so, Jeff went to the bar one last time.

“One more for me… and one more for my panda,” he asked. The barman set them up and Jeff and the Panda knocked them back. Suddenly, after one drink too many, the panda collapsed in a heap on the floor. Jeff left some cash on the bar, put his coat on and headed for the door.

The barman called after him, “Hey you can’t just leave that lyin’ there…”

To which Jeff replied, “Don’t be daft—that’s not a lion, it’s a panda…!”

UK Games Expo 2024

Today is the final day of the seventeenth UK Games Expo at the NEC in Birmingham, which is bigger and better than ever this year.  Arriving from Resort World, visitors are greeted by Vikings and Romans, and a family of geese living next to the lake.  Spread over three large halls, there are nearly six hundred exhibitors and a vast amount of table space for open gaming (both in the halls and at the nearby Hilton) and organised play-testing.

UKGE 2024
– Image by boardGOATS

Most games companies have a stand at UKGE, some with sales, some just demoing and many with both.  Exhibitors include Czech Games Edition, Oink Games, Hachette, Birdwood Games, Zeogenesis, and Asmodee (including demos of games from their distribution network like Bezier Games and Stonemaier Games).  Unusually, Waterstones have a large stall with a wide range of modern board and card games, including recent releases.  This suggests that they are keen to expand their position in the market, which can only be a good thing.

UKGE 2024
Rafter Five
Hive
– Images by boardGOATS

Board and card games are not the only things on display at UKGE, however.  In addition, there are also lots of stands selling scenery for miniature games and props for role and cosplay.  Accessories for general gaming feature as well, with dice, game storage inserts furniture.  One of the largest of these was and Geeknson who sell gaming tables, where one of the main attractions includes a giant’s dice tower.

UKGE 2024
– Image by boardGOATS

This year, lots of the regular and occasional boardGOATS made the trip to the NEC in Birmingham and it really felt like home-from-home.  Some visited just for the day while others helped on stands (Hachette and Zeogenesis) or at the Play Testing.  The event is so vast now though that you can no-longer guarantee accidentally bumping into people you know, but SMS is a great way to communicate onsite.

Parachute Panda
– Image by boardGOATS

The general consensus is that this year, although the feel is more like that of SPIEL (Essen), there aren’t the high profile, large-game new releases that there have been in previous years, instead, there seemed to be more expansions re-releases.  There are still a lot of exciting smaller new games to be had though and the event is great fun and well worth a visit.  UK Games Expo continues at the NEC in Birmingham until 4pm Sunday 2nd June.

UKGE 2024
– Image by boardGOATS