Oops.. I did it again.. I need help!!

Bought this Supersized Mc by Ron English. There are 10 different colours and texture, but I only bought the Red and Yellow Glow In The Dark. Just curious to see how glow it is in the dark hence spend SD20 for a 3 inch plastic!!
This one I just saw it in the shop. Only 700 in production for this Clay Figure. By Kaniza Toycube. Check out the website or below for a whole range of collection. I personally like the one above.

Wanted to get the variant color below limited to 300pcs, but the store have no stock for this. It all based on luck as the whole carton the shop bought are all blind box. We won't know what is it until they open it up.

I think I am starting to improve. Just until recently, I tend to be a perfectionist... wanted to collect every thing to form a set. But now no more!!

French Series Dunnies (Feb2008)

Should I buy them? I swear of not collecting them anymore... appreciate your opinions...

Weekend Toy+Hobby+Comic Stores Tour

Last weekend, a good friend who is also a toy+hobby+comic+book collector came down to Singapore for a visit.

On Saturday, I have planned up a tour, and took him around the city area stores. Those stores we covered are marked with a Purple Star.

We started from City Hall MRT Station, walking towards Bugis Station, then to Dhoby Ghaut Station covering all the stores that I know of along the way. Then, we took the MRT at Dhoby Ghaut to Raffles Place, then from Raffles Place we go towards China Town and to Clarke Quay Station. From Clarke Quay we went back to Bugis Station to meet his supplier. After collecting stuff, proceed to Orchard Road for few more shops.

Well, we walked whole day, I think we covered more than 15km of walking that day.

Spent a lot of $$... which I swear will stop after Chinese New Year, or else I will have to spend the rest of my life with my collection instead of with a wife.

Well post some pictures of my Trophy later.

Puffer Fish Dish

Last night had a business dinner with supplier. A colleague and supplier had this Puffer Fish (Fugu in Japanese) 河豚set for dinner. This set is optimized at 2 person hence I chose a bento box instead.

Well, very kind of them to let me taste the Puffer Fish Sashimi also, while the clay pot I helped to finish for them as the portion is very generous.

Puffer fish is famous for its lethal poison found in the liver and ovaries. And every year few people die because of consuming Puffer Fish.

This is the only delicacy that Emperor of Japan is forbidden to consume. Hehehe.

Marvel Super Heroes Figurines !!

(Click to Enlarge Images)

I just discovered this range of collectible 2 days ago... and I hate my self for not discover this earlier.

This range of Lead Figures all hand painted by the London Studio Eaglemoss . Because it is lead, it is heavy and the posing are very dynamic.

The comic shop I went to sell these at very reasonable price at exchange rate of USD1 = SD1.6. Compared to the Vinyl Designer Toys which at the rate of USD1= SD2 to SD2.5.

Man... with about the same amount of $$ spent, I can get either a Vinyl Plastic Toys manufactured from China Factory with sometimes bad quality paint job, versus Marvel Licensed Famous Comic Book Super Heroes made of Lead and hand painted in England (+ a full colored Magazine with explanation of the Super Hero, sometimes with Giant Poster also) . I decided to stop collecting plastics for the moment and start collecting lead.

Which of the characters featured above you like best?

Many popular heroes which I wanted to buy like Thor, Ironman, Wolverine, Gambit, Iceman are sold out. I bought Spiderman, Venom and Spidey in Black Costume. Well, waiting for the shop to re-stock. Hopefully can get my hands on Ironman!!

P/S:
( I have a feeling I am going to spend a lots of $$ on this... no Chinese New Year clothes for me this year... I spend RM200 on the clothes that does not fit me at bargain sale and swear not to spend anymore on clothes for the time being...)

8" Dunnies for January 2008

Got this pink 8" Dunny yesterday from a toy shop. Limited run of 1,500pcs for each color. The shop was only given 6 of this pink color by Kidrobot. This time they come with a mini Fatcap, that shaped like a spray can with limbs.

I was very tempted to get the black one below online, when the local shop told me they could not get their hands on them, but the price is forbidding, as Kidrobot only send their stuff via EMS courier service. The shipping it self cost more than the Dunny (Retail: USD50 per pc) which comes to about USD110. Any way, I waited for them to start taking orders online. But within hours (after a movie), I checked on the Internet, and they are sold out. So fast and crazy!!

This is still okay, if those items were bought by real collectors, but to my dismay, these item are starting to pop up on eBay selling at least 40% more of its retail price. These people who are not collectors, but who had a privileged to get those stuff easily (live nearby the stores etc.), then re-selling at a big profit margin are call : "Flippers!"

Well, I stop being so aggressive on hunting toys, as my room is running out of space to store the toys + $$ running low. Only get those that I really love and maybe when there is a bargain.

So, just give me some opinion, which color you like best?

2 Movies over the Weekend

1. This AVPR actually is a quite entertaining movie. I watched it in Singapore hence all the violence and gory bloody stuff is still intact. The story is a bit lame, but the effects are quite cool.

The new "Cleaner" Predator is one of the coolest so far in the campaign. He really knows what to do. Predators are the coolest fictional Alien Race in my book so far. Better than those star wars and star trek Aliens.
Hope to see another AVP movie, but this time in more futuristic world where human starts to travel space and the real war of Alien vs Predator (Human Allies) happens outside of earth.

2. Although this movie is like having a fun theme part ride, there is no apparent danger presence in the whole movie, unlike the 1st one. Part 2 is just trying to cash in extra $$ from the effect left over from Part 1. Don't think there will be Part 3 anymore, as the probability of a group of treasure hunters to find 3 National Treasures in a row is astronomical. Fun to watch though and have a few laughs.

3D/2N 西安，华山，秦俑 （2008/12/28-30）

Day 1 (12/28)

Reached 咸阳 Airport after 4.30pm. This tour only me, Amanda, a young lady tour guide and a driver.

We quickly proceed to the 大唐芙蓉园. The park was rebuild based on Tang dynasty period. Although it is a replica, but quite well done and beautiful.

After that we proceed to the famous Square where people likes to fly kite and walk walk. I did not take many pictures as the camera have ran out of Battery due the excessive used of flash. There are a lot of Bronze Sculpture of famous people of the Tang and Qin Era in the square, each with some explanation on those people.

After checking in to the hotel, we walked along 东大街，西安 City busiest street with shopping complexes and restaurants. We tried the famous 羊肉泡馍. I like the mutton which is really soft and tender. But the 馍 which you can see in the picture a round piece made of flour. We need to tear it into many tiny pieces in order for the mutton soup to sip into them. The 小菜 I love very much. Cucumber, ground nuts, sweetened garlic.

After dinner, we stroll along the street. We come to the famous Bell Tower, but unfortunately was closed for the day. We come to the street where 回族 people commence their business. They sell halal Beef /Mutton Kebab and Satay. Really looked delicious, but we are afraid to try due to our hard schedule the next day, climbing 华山. Must not upset our tummy.

Day 2(12/29) 华山

After 2 hours drive from 西安, we reached the base of 华山. We had a light lunch and prepare for the climb. We took a cable car from the base station till the North Peak, from there we climbed up to the other peak. The Snow from the previous night was still there, and it was very cold, about -5 to -8 degrees. The climb was quite tiring, especially in the winter. The steps are slippery due to ice and snow. We only managed to conquer the North, Middle and East Peak, due to time constrain, we could not go up to the South and West Peak. If we have an extra hour, we should have gone to all the peaks. A little bit of regret but over all we enjoyed the climb very much. Just the both of us. I did felt icy around my toes when I stopped to rest, seems like the sweat of my feet has frozen.

We reached the base again around 5pm, and headed straight to the hotel for a well deserved rest.



Day3 (12/30)
We headed to 临潼 early in the morning. 1st stop was the famous 华清池. This is the winter palace of 唐玄宗 and 杨贵妃. It is equipped with hot spring bath house. There is also a replica White Jade carving of Madam Yang naked getting out of the hot spring pool. Really a piece of art. The dried up pool was used by 杨贵妃.

Next stop is the underground tomb of Emperor Qin. It is a replica from the description of 史记. The real Tomb is just few kilometers away. The Chinese Archeology team still not confident of excavating the tomb as there are high content of mercury and not confident enough to preserve the artifact from oxidization. It was prohibited to take photographs inside the tomb, but I still see flashes though.
Last stop before we head for Airport is the 秦王兵马俑博物馆. One of my dream spot which I must come at least once in a life time. As a collector of toys, I see that Emperor Qin also like designer toys, in the form of Bronze Sculpture or Assembly and maybe other artifacts that still hidden in his tomb. The 2 Bronze Horse chariot was amazingly done with precise mechanical parts. There is also a Bronze Sword with Chromium coating that makes the edge very strong and sharp. This technology was only discovered by the Germans not more than 200 years ago. Wow... our Chinese ancestors might have lived in an era which is much more advance than we expect.


Too bad the 陕西博物馆 was still closed for refurbish. The newspaper said that they will be re-open by the end of December, but the information is not to be trusted. Or else I could have saw the Green Faced Terracotta Warrior and other 国宝级 artifacts which is kept in the museum.

We enjoyed the trip very much. I was thinking of going to Beijing next, hopefully before the 2008 Olympics.

6D/5N 云南游：昆明-大理-丽江 (2008/12/21-26)

2008/12/26- 上海 by plane to 昆明, Minibus to 大理

Joined the China Internal tour for local people. 9 of us from Shanghai, 7 Shanghainese and Me + Amanda (GF). A tour guide and a bus driver.

Day 1 (12/21)
Once we reached Kunming, we when for a city tour to a famous town square. After the short tour, we went straight to Dali for dinner and night rest. 6 hours drive.

Day 2 (12/22)
The next day, we visited a 白族豪宅, for a view of the old 白族 living quarters and their cultural performance. The 白族 ladies are very fair and pretty.



After the Mansion, we go for a boat ride on the 西湖 Lake, part of 洱海 Lake. The sky was so blue and the scenery around is really peaceful and quite. Very relaxing boat ride, with strong sunshine. We proceed to 丽江 after lunch in a restaurant besides the lake.

Late in the after noon, we reached 观音峡. This is the 1st stop and gate way to 丽江. This place used to be a place for horses to rest. The water is really clean tasty, with many fishes clearly been seen.

Day 3 (12/23)
We start off our morning to 丽江古镇. This is a world heritage site. This old city have survived a devastating 7.6 scale earth quake with just minor damage, that demonstrated the ancient Chinese architectural genius. From the streets we can see 玉龙雪山. The mountain of 5000+ meters which we suppose to climb next.

Very unfortunately, although the day is so clear with no clouds at all, the cable car company cannot operate due to strong wind. All of us are really disappointed. This was the main attraction of this trip. 玉龙雪山 is one of the Chinese National Park. From the near peak at 4,680meters (highest spot accessible by human), we should be able to witness glacial formation and breath taking view, especially nice clear sunny day... too bad... maybe next time. Just took some pictures at the bottom of the mountain.

Since we have extra time, we visited again to the Ancient City, this time we take our time to walk slowly and enjoy every bit of what the City has to offer. There is a famous 酒吧街 in the city, I took a short film , but no pictures.

The Fat Cat ignored me even I was so near to him. He is looking at another thin cat, picking up a fight.

Day4 (12/24)
We left 丽江 and headed back to 大理. Visited the 3 Pagoda from the out side and another ancient city. The City Walls are very much intact, and is one of the most well preserved city walls in China. We headed for 楚雄 for the night. This place is going to be a hot tourist spot in coming years. They will be opening a Dinosaur Fossil Museum very soon in 2008.

Day 5 (12/25)

石林公园 is a must go place in 云南. We spend more than 2 hours walking inside the park. It is really breath taking. And inside the park is like a giant maze. We could not cover the entire place due to restrain of Time and Energy. After that, we went to a shopping spot for the famous 普洱茶，and Chinese Medicine like 三七，藏红花. We proceed to 昆明 for our final night stay.

Day6 (12/26)
In the morning, we visited some shopping spot (Jade Shop, Flower Market, Flower Oil Essence shop (which I think is really cheap for 100% natural flower oil). Bought some Jade 翡翠pendants of 貔貅 for Mom, Amanda and my self (cost me a bomb!) and headed to the airport.

Over all was a very good trip!! The food was nice, surprisingly!! The only regret will be not going up to 玉龙雪山. And I really have to thank Amanda to be so sporting, although she was down with flu and fever due to the cold weather, we under estimated the weather.

I AM LEGEND

This movie reminds me of Cast Away (Tom Hanks), Residence Evil (Milla), 28 Days Later and 12 Monkeys (Bruce Willis).

Over all I like this movie, just that it is a bit too short. I was expecting more "Zombie Killing Action" though, but the theme here is to survive while finding a cure instead of eliminating the infected.

One thing I have no idea of, is how far exactly the infection have spread from New York to other part of the world.

Regarding the ending which many viewers were disappointed of, I personally think it is good to end the movie that way.