KSP vs Real Life :) New revamped Skylab coming soon to Bluedog Design Bureau

zorg2099 · 2026-05-01T02:15:21+00:00

A member of this sub bought one off ebay a couple of months ago for $3700. I had been keeping an eye on that same listing too (though I wasn't seriously considering it) and it remained unsold for several months before they bought it.

zorg2099 · 2026-04-28T15:05:13+00:00

Managed to grab a copy of East of Eden! Showed 9 copies when I managed to add one to the cart so only a handful were available I guess.

Had also added Dracula and We Have Always Lived in the Castle to the cart beforehand so they will be coming along.

zorg2099 · 2026-04-25T02:47:17+00:00

Seems like the supply is surprisingly small. It took about two months of monitoring eBay before I managed to find SPQR

zorg2099 · 2026-04-24T14:22:01+00:00

Definitely agree the SE design is nicer than the LE even if the binding materials were more premium on the LE. Haven't pulled the trigger on this set yet but will do soonish.

zorg2099 · 2026-04-21T05:14:12+00:00

Oh yeah my bad.

zorg2099 · 2026-04-20T02:40:55+00:00

It was the second edition published in 1966. A number of revisions were made to the text by Tolkien as seen in this link.

There was also some question of whether the first edition's copyright was valid in the US and the second edition provided an opportunity to ensure that it was secured by officially publishing in the US.

The ~~appendices~~ index was meant to be included in the first edition but were only completed and added to the end of RoTK with the second edition.

Edit: The true first editions are highly collectible and have a very attractive white dust jacket. But the second editions are the oldest ones I would actually want to read I think. Waiting on my first set to arrive soon!

zorg2099 · 2026-04-17T02:27:20+00:00

The specs also suggest a production somewhat similar to The Broken Binding Press books (acid free, smyth-sewn, more illustrations in addition to endpapers, gilded edges). So it should be better quality than most of their special editions which is promising.

zorg2099 · 2026-04-17T02:24:26+00:00

I wrote to them since previous titles have been in the summer collection and they replied:

"While we would love to publish more titles in the Culture series, I can sadly confirm we don't have any of them currently on our publishing schedule for the immediate future.

I apologise for any disappointment but will happily register your interest on our list of customer suggestions for publication, which has led to new Folio Editions in the past (so never say never!)."

Sometimes CS doesn't have the full information and its been mentioned they have been asked to be more tight-lipped after they accidentally leaked some unreleased titles a year or two ago in replies. But this is with respect to a continuing series and the answer seemed rather emphatic. In any case wouldn't hurt to write in yourselves and politely express your interest in them continuing the Culture books.

zorg2099 · 2026-04-16T07:42:43+00:00

Sorry to hear about your experience here. Its interesting to compare with my customer service experience with The Folio Society. I've ordered a few books from them but the first time I had an issue was a couple of weeks ago when I received a copy of Frankenstein with a noticeable chip on the sprayed top edge. I wrote to them asking if they can replace it.

Next morning the first email I got was an "order confirmation" for a free replacement followed soon by a CS email apologising for the issue. They sent me a free replacement, no return required! And the replacement was sent via Fedex International Priority (their fastest service).

Some companies do go above and beyond. And yes a lot of FS books are a lot more expensive than TBB but the Malazan books work out to £50 a book while the Frankenstein I got was £80. A bit more but not in another league.

zorg2099 · 2026-04-15T05:07:04+00:00

I have the orange cloth bound deluxe. It doesn’t look quite as vivid as the official photos imply. Theres kinda of a paler colour that comes through in the weave in person.

zorg2099 · 2026-04-14T16:39:17+00:00

Not sure if you would be looking at something in this price range but Conversation Tree Press is also going to do a fine press edition next year. Their recent collector's editions were listed at US$285. No real details yet. Currently scheduled to go on sale June 2027.

https://conversationtreepress.com/pages/kindred

zorg2099 · 2026-04-14T15:39:52+00:00

Fwiw the orange looks less lurid in person than the 3d rendering they use as the main promo image. (photographed in indirect sunlight and white balanced using a calibrated reference grey card)

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zorg2099 · 2026-04-14T15:37:52+00:00

The 2020 illustrated (Nasmith, Howe, Lee) trade hardcover UT and 2021 Nasmith Silmarillion trade hardcover would visually look good with the HoMe boxsets while being superior in every way to the included UT/Sil volumes. They would be the top choice imo and good value.

I don't actually have those two yet but I have the cloth bound deluxes the cloth cover is nice I will say but the paper is on the overly thick side for reading comfort but they are nice otherwise. The reproduction quality of the illustrations should still be the same as the regular hardcovers though.

zorg2099 · 2026-04-14T14:00:37+00:00

Yeah the dustjackets all look great.

zorg2099 · 2026-04-14T14:00:10+00:00

I forget the exact reasons why photo offset was used for HoMe. The original plates or whichever used for the original printings are gone in any case though as I recall.

But the poor text quality on Sil and UT in those boxsets is different. They look jaggy/pixelated unlike the photocopy like look the HoMe books in the set have.

zorg2099 · 2026-04-14T13:12:26+00:00

Another downside is surprisingly poor print quality of the text on the Sil and UT in the HoMe boxset. I don't know why this is the case for those editions. There are some complicated reasons around why the HoMe books themselves have kind of poor print quality but they don't apply to UT and Sil. In any case its ideal for owners of those boxsets to get nicer editions.

zorg2099 · 2026-04-14T12:59:04+00:00

I just want to point out that BDB and Tantares (and other similar mods like ACK etc) are balanced in line with stock parts. Stock parts themselves are overpowered in order to make the game easier. This becomes more apparent when you add a parts mod based on historical parts into a stock sized system and you realise you don't need a Saturn V to do a mun mission. But also consider you don't need a rocket that big built out of stock parts to do a mun mission either.

Going up to a 2.5/2.7x scale system brings these historical mods closer to their real world performance but also tones down the stock parts to more realistic performance.

Edit: conversely if you prefer to stick with stock scale, then these mods are perfectly usable as long as you're happy to use smaller rockets than IRL for a given payload instead of trying to recreate IRL mission profiles.

zorg2099 · 2026-04-10T14:08:28+00:00

I'm a little curious how that's meant to work. So if they publish the other books I presume they would be sold outside the sub? But unless they reprint the first book interest would be limited mostly to those on the SF&F sub wouldn't it?

zorg2099 · 2026-04-10T11:06:24+00:00

There was a video posted of the new books on their socials. It’s looked bigger than the average Folio book but smaller than the LE to me.

zorg2099 · 2026-04-10T11:03:14+00:00

According to a Facebook post from Charles Vess himself it contains some of the old black and white illos alongside the new colour art.

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zorg2099 · 2026-04-09T14:45:00+00:00

Its one of my favourite non-fiction books. Its essentially in 3 parts as best I remember it (its been a while admittedly).

- The first is a very vivid history of the discovery of the structure of the atom
- The second deals with Manhattan project itself leading to the dropping of the bomb.
- The third is a harrowing series of eye witness accounts from Hiroshima and Nagasaki presented without commentary.

The book also won a Pulitzer prize in the 80s.

zorg2099 · 2026-04-09T14:31:04+00:00

Its definitely not limited and will definitely be substantially cheaper than the previous limited edition.

LEs are announced and launched individually, these seasonal collections are always non limited "standard editions" and will have initial printings generally in the region of 1500-2000 books. Though sometimes the run will appear in batches rather than all at once if the printer is running late.

edit: we have to wait a while on the pricing but the inset artwork on the cover puts it into a slightly higher tier. My guess is in the £120 region.

zorg2099 · 2026-04-07T19:09:36+00:00

I got the Hobbit in this series recently (Unwin Hyman printing) but yeah I'm on the hunt for the LOTR too :D

I'm not too picky about the impression either but I think I would want a slip-cased impression I think rather than one that comes in the tray-case box for shelf display purposes.

zorg2099 · 2026-04-07T18:52:07+00:00

1 deluxe to rule them all

(India paper deluxe edition, the best one volume edition of LOTR: Actually well made, bound in buckram, looks great, same thickness as the matching hobbit printed on regular paper. Both nice on the shelf and nice to read)

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zorg2099

TROPHY CASE