Ladies, gentlemen, anything in between, we are pleased to announce the most recent addition to our website - "Stories".  A collection of fictional writings by the team (but mainly Forbes).  These stories have a large variety of topics (or at least there will be once more have been written and added to the website).

The first addition to the new page is called "Investigations: The Lightning Man".  Written by Forbes earlier this year, it is about a team of detectives (but mainly one in particular by the name of Campbell McGill) trying to solve the case of a man on a killing spree, who is able to shoot lightning from his arm.

This story has been split into 6 parts.  The first 2 are available as of today, while each of the remaining parts will be released weekly until the final 2, which will be released together like today's batch.  It will be the end of April by the time the entire story will be revealed completely.

To find the Stories page, go to the top of the page on our website and hover the mouse arrow over the "more..." tab.  From there the rest of the menu will appear and it will be there amongst others.

Alternatively, you can click on the button below...

Please remember to leave a comment, etc.  Let us know what you think!

The next chapter will be released on Monday 7 April.

Hello there!

Starting from next week I’ll be bringing you a story called "Investigations: The Lightning Man".  It will be split into 7 parts spanning over 5-6 weeks, with one or two parts every week.

It’s a crime story from a world I have used before called Gosney, and I have written elements of these characters before.  As I have mentioned on Facebook, this is a made for Stuffed Duck Productions release only.  You won’t find it on any of my personal sites on the web, only here and our affiliated sites will you be able to read this!

I hope you enjoy it.  I have plans to release more short stories here providing the feedback I get is positive.

This story is about a detective's struggle to bring a desperate and unique man to justice.

As always, hope you enjoy the things we bring you here and look forward to feedback.

Cheers!

-Weasel-

Howdy there!  Welcome back to another installment of "Weasel Words"!  Hope everyone is having a fantastic day or night?  Well?  Don’t be shy!  You can speak up!  Oh right, sorry.  I forgot about how this whole Internet thang works.  Anyway, I hope that wherever you are and whatever you are doing that you’re doing it well and enjoying yourselves.

Right, down to the business at hand.  Here we have the fourth album in Black Sabbath’s catalogue, aptly named "Vol. 4".  The individual on the cover is none other than the man himself, Ozzy Osbourne.  The font as you will no doubt see and understand is very 1970’s.  The information in the sleeve on my CD (a better quality one) states that this was released in 1976, the year of my brother’s birth.

This is from a heavy point of view the pinnacle of the Sabbath sound.  "Master of Reality" was heavy but I believe this record is heavier in many respects and represents the sound that made them a success.  The biggest difference for me that separates this record from the previous three is the theme of love that etches its way into a couple of the tracks and there are a couple of instrumentals in here as well, but "FX" has to be the most pointless track to have ever been created.  It basically is a minute and forty seconds of Iommi playing around with the frets of his guitar.

The opening track, "Wheels of Confusion" is a brilliant start to the album and indicates that we are about to witness something truly special.  It’s also one of Sabbath’s longer tracks, which makes the fact that the band can turn its length to its fortune quite a credit indeed.  The ending is a brilliant rock out moment with Iommi leading Butler and Ward out of the song well.  I have listened to this song many times just to hear the ending.  Absolutely brilliant.  But as good as this song is, there is better to come.  "Supernaut" is the best song on this album and one of most personal favourites.  Again, it’s the cymbal work by Ward that makes it work so well.  There is a solo in the middle of the song that is absolutely amazing and words cannot describe how awesome it is.  Again, Ward’s work on this song cements his place as one of music’s best drummers of this period of time.  The lyrics are about travelling in space?  I dunno.  The lyrics are a bit vague, have a listen to it for yourself and come up with your own hypothesis.

"Snowblind" is a cool song too, and Sabbath delve into the drug theme once again for this one, but the music is strong and soulful with Iommi provided great, strong riffs.  "Cornucopia" is a heavy song with great work by Iommi and Butler, but once again, it is Ward who steals the show.  You may have noticed a recurring theme here.  Well, I hope so in any case.  The best I can figure out is that this song is about depression and living within the world of man?  "Laguna Sunrise" is a cool wee number largely by Iommi and a keyboard and achieves quite a surreal sound.  You can imagine listening to this song on the beach during sunset, or that’s what I believe.  "St. Vitus' Dance" is a festival-style dance fest song, if that doesn’t make sense, well I can’t describe it any clearer than that.  Lyric wise this is a song about giving love another chance.  "Under the Sun" is a song similar in style to "Cornucopia", at least from a musical perspective.  Lyrically it’s a song about living your life without regrets.  The ending is pretty cool. The song just completely slows down until it finally stops.  Excellent.

All and all, not a bad album.  It has a few good numbers in there, a few knock out blows and shows that Sabbath were really laying the platform for others to follow.  As I said earlier, "Supernaut" is a personal favourite of mine, and "Wheels of Confusion" has a very awesome ending.  Everyone does some good work on this record, but Ward has to receive the award for greatest contribution.  He really isn’t any better than he is here and shows just how good he can be with his manic beating of kick drums, snares and most importantly, cymbals.

I have to say, not a personal favourite of mine.  The albums of either side would be among my favourites, but this one was, for me rather average in terms of general appeal.  I like most of the songs, but apart from "Supernaut", most of the rest are good, perhaps great but not outstanding.  Still, the albums stands as a reminder to the glory days of the Sabbath sound and the peak of their rhythmical style.  After this point the sound gets a little lighter, but I believe the songs get a little catchier and a little more enjoyable.

So, that’s my review of "Vol. 4".  Hope you enjoyed it.  Give us feedback - we always like that - and head to our many pages and links.  Check out the full website and see what we have on offer.

Next up will be a couple of my favourites and in the essence really the last two albums that the band actually enjoyed doing, so I’ll see you next time.  Enjoy yourselves and listen to the album, it really is quite good.

Cheers!

-Weasel-

Hello there.  It is I, the Weasel!

This is just a little update on what I am up to.  It will be a little bit different as to the updates that Duckman will be giving you as this is an update on what I’m doing and plan to do for the page!

As you would have noticed, I have been doing a few reviews for a band I like called Black Sabbath.  This has been hugely enjoyable for me and at this point I have typed up the first six albums.  I do plan on doing some more and may include some other bands that I have a strong affinity with, but we will see.

I also plan on writing some small stories and releasing them in stages on here.  The stories will take many forms and will be interesting to say the least, but can’t say more because I haven’t really decided on how that will go yet.

At the point of writing this, I have three reviews online and three ready to go, so there is a bit of material for the sits and I can’t give a date as to when the first story will be up.  I haven’t even started to write one for the page yet but hopefully that will change.  I am on holiday at the moment and am hoping to do a lot of material for the page.

As always, I hope you enjoy what I do as I enjoy doing it.  Give me feedback, maybe suggestions on what you’d like to see as I consider myself multi-talented!  Keep it real, check out the page and I’ll see you on the flip side!

Cheers!

-Weasel-

Normally I would do an energy drink review on our YouTube series, "Trying Stuff", but since I've changed my criteria for what passes or gets rejected for the show (a page about this is on the website), you may find certain things in a blog post instead.  This latest entry is no different.  I give you the most recent V Energy Drink flavour, simply called "Kaboom!"

What's so special about this, you ask?  It's just another energy drink, right?  Well, yes, you're right.  However, it comes in a funky can with a comic strip on it!  Only problem I have with it though is that I'm not exactly sure of what order I should be reading it, as the drink's logo is smack in the middle of it all.  A comic tends to get a little confusing when there appears to be (I think) parts of it covered up.  If anyone out there has seen this product, and know how the comic's story goes, please enlighten me in the comments section!

As for the flavour, the best way I can describe it is 'liquid lollies' (or candy/sweets in some parts of the world).  It's rather delicious, actually.  I put it right up there with my 2 other favourite V flavours (Blue, and 'Not Orange').

A fairly short review this one.  Not much else to say about it, really.  Oh well, time for bed anyway!

Flavour: 10/10
Presentation: 9.5/10
Price: 8/10
Overall Rating: 8/10

Sometime in the first few months of 2014, I got the opportunity to try out a new burger joint that opened up in Christchurch.  Originally founded in Auckland in 1995, it gradually made its way through NZ's North Island in the years following.  In 2010, it made it as far as the Middle East!  Not a bad effort for a Kiwi company.  Top marks, guys!  And from the sounds of it, they'll be setting up shop in the US very soon, so keep looking out for it, America!  Oh, and Australia has some branches as well - thought I'd mention that last just to make the point that it is, in fact, a Kiwi franchise.  You're not claiming this one, you greedy kangaroo!

Anyway...

The restaurant (located at the Christchurch mall called Bush Inn Centre, on Riccarton Road) is a pretty cool atmosphere.  It's kinda unique as well.  A lot of the features, including the lighting, were partially made from car parts...  Random!  Definitely a place for car lovers.

I will be honest, because it's been so long since I went there, I'm not 100% sure of what burger I ordered.  What I do remember is that it had a jalapeño sauce, or something like that.  It was rather tasty.  Funny story to add to that though.  There was (or still is?) an option to have a low-carb version of it.  So I thought, "Well, I don't want to be putting too much weight on... Yeah, why not?"  At first I expected to get a burger with a special low-carb bun or something like that.  However, when my order was delivered to the table, I got what looked (to the untrained eye) like half a burger... There was no bun at all!  Basically, I got extra lettuce to hold the fillings in, and no bun.  That's your 'low-carb' version of the burger I ordered.  Weird!  It's a nice idea, but I was still hungry after my meal.  If this sounds like you, I strongly recommend just sticking with the bun.

Misunderstandings aside, I think it's a pretty good franchise and I can see why it's popular where it is.  Chances are, I will have to go back again and order a proper version of a burger, but I can still safely say that they hold up well.

Flavour: 9/10
Presentation: 9/10
Price: 6/10
Overall Rating: 8/10

P.S.  They have an interesting sense of humour when it comes to their hand dryers.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Mick Jagger and co. tonight after the news of the recent passing of his girlfriend, L'Wren Scott.  The Rolling Stones were due to perform here in New Zealand, but had to postpone due to the saddening news.

Hello there!  It is I, the Weasel!  Lord of the world!  Well, not yet, but soon!  Welcome to another of my award winning reviews.  Well, not really, but they should be winning awards!  They are awesome!  Well, ahem... let’s move on!

"Master of Reality" is in my personal opinion the best album of the 1970’s that Sabbath produced.  I stand behind that statement with more than a few big hitting blows on this record.  I feel that every band, well the successful ones anyhow, have a pinnacle, a peak, a summit, where their success reaches its highest point.  "Master of Reality" is where I feel that Sabbath reached theirs.  The songs are tight, well-constructed, but there is no theme running through this one, the songs are a jumble of previously raided subject matter; drugs, war and the supernatural as well as adding more theoretical subject matter to the mix.  There’s a few instrumentals on this, with Iommi producing an acoustic marvel in the form of "Orchid" and the spooky, supernatural "Children of the Grave".

Favourites in this record are "Sweet Leaf", a hard hitting guitar driven song about the hold that tobacco has upon those that smoke it.  The coughing intro is another example of the fun ways that Sabbath continue to use to introduce some of their tracks.  "After Forever" is just as the title would suggest, being a song that talks about the afterlife and deals with the subject of religion and God.  The almighty is dealt with here in terms of respect, which puts to shame the critics that accuse the band of being Satanists.  There is also some good and clever use of cymbals in this song, which is thanks to the efforts of Ward, who proves time and time again that he is one of the finest musicians in the business and from what I’ve seen and heard, a man of great respect, dignity and courtesy to fans and fellow musicians alike.  "Embryo", which has been mistaken for "Children of the Grave" by some fans, is an excellent song with a brilliant intro that I absolutely loved as a kid.  It starts out with this lonesome electric guitar riff, that’s quiet and eery, and then there’s this building of instruments, like an approaching army, and then WHAM!  Everything breaks loose into a typical blood fest of Sabbath heavy sounds!  Absolutely amazing.  The song is excellently done with a fantastic break towards the end of the song that works so well thanks to Ward going nuts with the cymbals.  This is a song that talks mainly about how the children are the future and how their future is largely doomed.  Not one of my favourites but I want to mention it anyway, "Solitude", which is a rolling, passive kinda song that is mainly about a man who is now on his own after a failed romantic endeavour.  The song works well because of Ozzy’s abilities to portray the feelings of the doomed and lonely man of the song across to the listener.  This would be something that Ozzy would do more in his solo career after Sabbath. "Into the Void" is my favourite on the album. It’s a cool song with a fast tempo rhythm and a lyric styling that mimics that rhythm.

Don’t have any secret stories about this particular album apart from the fact that it is probably the best constructed album of the Ozzy years.  But I stand by the awesomeness of this record due to the fact that it got me through my formative years as a rock metal dude.  I can remember listening to this before I even reached my teenage years.  It holds a special place as it was probably the second album of Sabbath’s that I got into after "Paranoid".

Everyone puts in a good effort onto this record. I would be further remiss if I didn’t share a story from my youth that includes a song from this record, so I’ll tell it.  Also, I’ve still got a bit of room in this review. It would seem that I have told the review a little too quickly so this story will fill some time in nicely!

One evening my brother, let’s call him 'Brutal', took control of my stereo system and played "Orchid" repeatedly.  And when I say repeatedly, I mean just that!  He played that damned song over and over, and over and over, and over and over again!  I’m not sure how long the mayhem lasted but he nearly drove me insane with that song!  I think I went to sleep that night with that song playing on the speakers!  To this day I can’t hear that song without thinking of that crazy night when my sadistic brother out me though that hell.

Wow, haha that is kinda funny now I come to think about it.  Glad I shared that with all you good folks out there.  Well, I think that will do for this album, it’s been fun, but it’s time to put this beast to bed.

As always, check out all the other stuff we have for you here, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

Cheers.

-Weasel-

Howdy there!  It is I, the Weasel, ready to rock your world yet again!  Hope everyone is having fun, is sitting down with some crisps, and maybe a Coke?  I mean the Coke you drink, but if snorting some Coke floats your boat, then be my guest.  I don’t judge around here.  Each to their own, I say!

We move on in our Black Sabbath reviews with the second album, "Paranoid".  Considered to be one of the finest and most successful albums in the bands repertoire.  I personally think the third is better, but this one definitely is a good one.  It also has some rather interesting stories behind it, with the cover being one of those, but I’m jumping ahead of myself and there is much to talk about first.  I am unsure of the exact year and the CD I own is a cheapo version and has little information so I will be delving into my own knowledge which may be a little wrong, so forgive me if you will.

I believe the year of release was either 1970-71, I know it was around that time period.  When I was a kid I used to know all of this off the top of my head, but now I’m getting old and forgetful!  I can’t give any more info on the technical aspects of the album because I don’t know any of that and I’m not going to look it up on the net.  If you want you can do that, but I’m way too lazy to do that myself.

There are themes, once again, running through this album.  The most notable being war and mental delusions.  The album is once again very dark and at times can be a little hard to listen to.

There are some real gems in this album and it would be remiss of me not to mention "Paranoid" at this point.  "Paranoid" was and still is Black Sabbath’s most successful song commercially.  You will take note of the fact I said commercially.  I consider many other songs much, much better than "Paranoid", but this number has etched itself into the history books of metal and music in general.  I don’t remember how it did in the music charts but I do think it did very, very well.  It’s a short song that was hastily put together by the band as a filler.  If you go on YouTube you can find a nice little story probably told by either Butler, Iommi or Osbourne on the story of how this song was made.  I didn’t find it that interesting the first time I heard it or the five hundred other times I have heard the same rather boring story.  I find the story of how Bill Wards pants caught fire much more appealing.  You can find that on YouTube as well and I suggest you do indeed look for it you won’t be disappointed!  But needless to say that this little gap filler of a song has become very popular and propelled Sabbath onto the big time.

My personal favourites on this record would be the mercurial "War Pigs", a ballad on the issues surrounding war, although there are earlier lyrics that were more supernatural in tone.  An early demo can be found online.  I have a copy of this demo from my Ozzy Osbourne library.  Definitely worth a listen.  "War Pigs" has elements of blues worked quite well into it’s make up and is a clever constructed piece in both forms.  I would say that most fans would put it up there in their top five best Sabbath songs.  "Iron Man" is another classic song from this era and I love the intro.  Ward’s steady beat, combining with Iommi’s menacing chords create the perfect backdrop for the start of a truly inspiring piece of music.  The tempo of "Iron Man" goes up and down easily and efficiently as and where needed.  And it tells a cool story of "Iron Man", someone who gains superpowers and then is ostracised by humanity for his difference and then sets about to make humanity suffer.  As I said, really cool.  "Hand of Doom" is another example of Sabbath’s ability to speed up and slow things down without losing the plot or the substance of the song.  "Hand of Doom" at times is controlled well by Butler and Ward in a little groovy jazz beat and Osbourne keeps things on the down low, not at all insane or out of control and then, BAM!!!  Things get real, with Iommi blasting his way in and forcing the other three members to join his aggression!

The song is about drugs and how some soldiers after the war would turn to addiction to escape the pain of war.  So this song combines intelligently, the two main themes of the album, war and drugs and the eventual cost of mental sanity that can bring.  I will mention the last track on the album, "Fairies Wear Boots".  It has some brilliant work by both Iommi and Butler, who show once again what can be achieved when you get a good guitarist and bassist working in tandem with each other.  The song is another take on drugs from both the perspective of the user and the doctor.  The user sees fairies wearing boots and goes and seeks help.  Osbourne brings a lot of personal authority to this number as his drug abuse is common knowledge.

Right, time for the fun facts.  This is a well-known story within the Sabbath vaults.  The front cover of "Paranoid" contains a blurred picture of a samurai warrior coming out, Katana raised (that’s a sword) moving so fast as displayed by the three versions of himself.  If you look closely at the first version you will notice that he looks a bit different.  You will see what seems to be a snout.  Hmm, yes if you have guessed that the cover would suit the title "War Pigs" then you would guess right as that was supposed to be the title of the second album.  "Paranoid" became such a huge success that the powers that be persuaded the band to change the title from "War Pigs" to "Paranoid", but there wasn’t time to change the album artwork so the "War Pigs" cover stayed. It does give the term paranoid an interesting idea, with a dude jumping out of the forest, changing from a pig into a man with a sword raised, looking just a tad irritated!!

I like this one for a few of the well-known knock out blows.  "War Pigs" has always been a classic metal epic, "Iron Man" is a good head bopper, "Electric Funeral", "Hand of Doom" and "Fairies Wear Boots" are all good songs.  This album feels more of a winner than the previous one and has some good knock out blows supporting the public stunner, "Paranoid".  Not as dark as the first, but makes up for that with some perhaps better, more relatable themes and the music is perhaps tighter and better constructed, showing that the lads from Birmingham were learning as well as drinking and doing drugs.  But as good as this was, more was yet to follow.

I give this 8/10.

Hope you have enjoyed this review.  As always, check out everything else we have on the webpage for you to look at.  We have a lot here to entertain you, well I hope it’s entertaining!

Cheers.

-Weasel-

Why howdy there one and all!  It is I, the Weasel, with the first of my semi-regular segments that I shall call "Weasel Words" and it is going to be fab-o!

Today, I shall begin with the first installment of the review series on my Black Sabbath collection.  These will be frank and more of a personal look into these albums from my own perspective.  I may continue with other albums in my collection, but will depend on how interesting I find writing these up.  I mean, I may get bored or I may decide to do something else!

"Black Sabbath" was the first album by a band called...Black Sabbath!!!  It was formed by four Englishmen from one of the most boring places on earth...Birmingham!  I apologise if I have offended anyone from Birmingham that is actually reading this, but if you are from Birmingham, I suggest that you GET OUTTA THERE IMEDIATELY!!

John Osbourne, Frank Iommi, Terrance Butler and William Ward comprised the group.  Fans of metal will know them by different names of course.  When you're a big-shot rock dude, you have to have a name cooler than John or Frank, and worst of all, Terrance!  Just looked up the info to see if I got those names right and I did!  Ten points to me!

My CD says that the album was released in 1970, but that might actually be wrong.  I seem to remember this album being released in 1969, but hey!  Who cares, right?

I could rip off the wonderful Hugh Gilmour, who has done many wonderful articles on the wonderful Black Sabbath about how they started out as Polka Tulk, then changed to Earth (at Ward’s suggestion), then moved into the name Black Sabbath (at Butler’s suggestion), but this is my review and it's more about my take on the music, not some waffling essay on the band’s origins.  Plus, there are others who have done this better than I could ever hope to do, so I won’t.

The album has a horror/occult aspect to it that came from the bassist, Geezer Butler.  Most notably in the songs, "Black Sabbath", "The Wizard" and "Evil Woman".  From what I understand, religious groups got a little annoyed at a perceived ‘satanic’ glorified messages, but anyone who has actually listened to the album can tell you this simply isn’t true, although the song "Black Sabbath" talks more about the futility of resisting Satan and his power.  All four members of the band get some good exposure in this record, with Ward’s drumming on "Behind the Wall of Sleep", Iommi’s lengthy solo on "Sleeping Village/The Warning", and Butler’s intro solo on "N.I.B."

The sound of the record is very raw and musty.  Definitely very 1970’s I would say, but different to anything else that came before it or after it, by anyone else or Sabbath themselves.  From the beginning, the bass, drums and guitars meld together to provide a great platform for Osbourne’s wonderfully dramatic and piercing voice.  Few groups seem to get the elements right from the get go, but Sabbath seemed to have managed that.

This record is in a large way all about themes.  The theme of the occult, the dark arts is the most recurring thread throughout.  I can only guess that was something that people in 1970 responded to, or perhaps because this was the first group to try something of that dark intensity.  Maybe people were sick of songs about the government, or about love.  The closest this album gets to love is a song about some evil woman, and believe me, there’s nothing nice about it!

"N.I.B." is most definitely the best song on the album and probably the most commercial, I would say.  It's very smooth and incredibly easy to listen to.  Just sitting here thinking about it I can hear the rhythm for the song clearly in my head.  The rolling bassline on "Evil Woman" is incredibly catchy and very Butler.  "Sleeping Village/The Warning" is an ode almost to their jazz background, with plenty of 'jive sounds' and 'groovy beats' and as I mentioned before, Tony Iommi breaks into what is perhaps the longest studio solo attempted in "Black Sabbath".  It is worth listening to as Iommi is one of the greatest improvisational guitar specialists in the industry, but that is my opinion and some of you will disagree.

One thing I would like to note, however that my CD has the last song as "Wicked World", but that is an extra that was put on the new releases.  The vinyl and early CD releases don't have that song on them.  The album 'officially' ends with "Sleeping Village/The Warning".  "Wicked World" was an early Sabbath demo and I think that "Wicked World" was made when the group was still known as Earth, but don’t quote me on that.

Another little known fact, or maybe a well-known fact is that Ozzy Osbourne plays the harmonica on the song "The Wizard", and I might add that he does it very well.

To sum up, this is a rather good start for a group that would go on to great things.  This is probably the weakest of the first six albums that they produced, but that just goes to show how good the next five albums would be, because this isn't a bad record.  There isn't one bad song on it in my humble opinion.  But there also isn’t really any knock out blows.  "N.I.B." would be the closest and "Black Sabbath" and "The Wizard" are good too, but not exceptional.  I have always enjoyed this album and the ending of "Black Sabbath" has been an example of what moody metal can achieve, and the rhythm of the whole record is very good as I think I have already stated.  I give this record 7/10.

Hope you have enjoyed my review of this metal record and I will see you next time, I hope!

Cheers!

-Weasel-

It's been a long time coming, but an old favourite from my high school years is finally here.  Officially, I hadn't eaten any of these delicious pies since 1996, the year Georgie Pie was purchased by McDonald's.  The reason, of course, was their decision to not continue making money from them by keeping them open.  Bit of a dick move, if you ask me.

In the late 2000's, a big nostalgia movement was on the rise.  Griffin's eventually brought back the old favourite, Choco-ade biscuits in 2012 (see our Season 2 episode of "Trying Stuff" called "Choc-Star" for our opinion on this), and many of us felt that if Griffin's could do this, why not bring back the George?  The cry for its return had already been under way.  In fact, there was a documentary on YouTube about it.  A part of which shows a one-time event where a local bakery in the suburb of Papanui brought back the beloved pie for a single day (I have a couple cameos in this video, but they're so short you'd probably miss both of them by blinking...once).  Obviously, the stock ran out in a very short time, proving how much we missed it.

So now in 2014, it has finally arrived.  Already being available at McDonald's stores in the North Island since the end of last year (they always get things first, greedy sods), it seems that the return was welcomed by many.  However, I started out a bit skeptical.  For starters, these pies were no longer ranging from $1 to $4 like they used to.  I know it's the 21st century, but still.  Be reasonable!  Secondly, they were only bringing back one flavour.  Rude!  They did eventually bring out a second one, but I haven't had that one (I don't like corn).

Anyway, this review is about my opinion on the taste.  Is it different?  Well, just a tad.

First of all, the flavour is still great.  Takes me back to those days my family and I would go there on a semi-regular basis.  We only had it in Christchurch for a short time before its demise (refer to previous North Island comment), so I was feeling happy to have the pie return and basically taste the same as it did back then.  However, there is one thing that disappointed me.  Back in the 90's, I remember it being more meaty.  I'm pretty sure they used to be more chunky than the pies I used to have.  I ended up buying a second one the next day just to be sure I didn't just get a poorly-made batch.  Nope, same thing.  Bit of a let down in that department.  Either way though, the pie is still great except for the meat content being lower than expected and, obviously, the price change.

As a final thought, I would like to add that since buying the second pie (which was sometime in January, if I'm not mistaken), I didn't purchase a combo or any other product.  The reason for this is because of what happened to GP in the early days, I refuse to eat any McDonald's product with the pie.  Those two, despite the location they're made in, will never go together in my books.  In closing, that second pie was the last time I actually bought anything from a McDonald's restaurant.  As a protest?  Maybe.  Whatever the reason is, I guess you could say I'm not lovin' it.

Flavour: 10/10
Presentation: 9/10
Price: 2/10
Overall Rating: 9/10

The website is now open to the public!  Welcome one and all.  Save us to your ad blocker's whitelist and enjoy the ride.  ;)

Just a small request for all the visitors/regulars of this website.  If you have an ad-blocker app on your PC, mobile phone, etc, it would be doing us a favour if you save this website in its safe list.  You can still keep it activated, but if you could allow it to let ads load on our sites, that would be great.  We hope to make a living out of this website in the near future.  Cheers!  :)

Just in case anyone was wondering how we run things on this website, regarding new material, what we'll be doing is this.  Whenever either Forbes, myself, or both of us have something new to contribute, the finished product (e.g. a video or audio piece) will be posted on the blog page first.  The item will be added to the appropriate page later on down the line.

If it's just a blog entry, obviously it'll just remain here.  There is a link to the archives to the right, which will allow for you to view older posts.

Have a nice day.  :)

P.S.  A new series is currently being worked on.  Stay tuned.

Greetings one and all and welcome to the official website for Stuffed Duck Productions!  How are you?  :)

On this website you will find a variety of forms of entertainment for your pleasure.  We have music by various projects (Supertrip, n-Somnia, Kingrow, Gosney, Duckman, and The Swede Legacy), our own YouTube videos and webseries (e.g. "Trying Stuff", "The Ducksel Comedy Game Walkthroughs", and more), photo galleries, podcasts and many, many more!

To navigate around this website you must rely on the tabs near the top of the pages.  You will also find a variety of buttons (in either blue or grey) that will take you to other parts of our network.  Buttons that take you away from this website will open a new tab/window before they load their destination.  There is also a small number of link buttons at the top of the page, which will take you to other sites that are a part of the network (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc).

You are more than welcome to comment on our blog, Facebook pages, and anywhere else it allows you to.  And be sure to 'Like' us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter while you're there!



We hope you enjoy your stay at our website.  Please remember to favourite/bookmark it for future visits as we will be updating on a regular basis.