Toys Carnival @ SAM

Went to the Toys Carnival at Singapore Arts Museum (SAM) on 5th July. Arrived there at about 1100h and it was already pretty crowded. Bumped into a friend once gotten onto the train who was heading towards the same place as me too so had company on the train ride.No entrance fees for the day due to the event and I met my friend who was already there since 1000h. Was supposed to meet quite a few groups of people but was unable to clone myself so hard to meet different groups at different time and for a period of time. The whole place was like China Square Central (CSC) on Sundays with lots of stalls and all selling all sorts of toys, figures and collectibles, except that the prices was much better as quite alot of stuff was going for lelong prices or rather better discounts. And well there were much more stalls over there, with host The Falcon's Hangar (TFH) along with the usual Simply Toys, Rapid Culture, Mikelz, Ng's Collection, Action City, Vincent Collection, Toyz Crazi, Xeno Hobbyworks and more. Well what was more interesting was the cosplayers mainly Star Wars characters and troopers by 501st Garrison and some Masked Riders cosplayers. There was only mini displays of toys, there wasnt much display of toys but there were some fun stuff like the Nerf booth. Well forgot to bring my camera out and had to borrow my friend's camera which till date he hasnt passed me the photos. Saw alot of familiar faces and friends.

Well hoots time starting off with the free comic by GnB Comics which everyone was given from visiting the event.

Dunno what comic izit but well at least the female looks hot..

This was actually my first purchase as I thought I wont be getting any stuff at the event (which I was so wrong) and not wanting to go back empty handed decided to get this DCUC Ares which looked really cool and I had wanted to get it previously. 2nd piece of DCUC which I didnt really wana start lol..

Purchases at Simply Toys booth, One Piece X Dragonball X Naruto crossover set which I finally completed with all the 3 secrets! They only had 2 sets of Naruto with secret piece of Nine tails and Dragonball set with the secret piece 神龙, missing out the One Piece secret piece of Thousand Sunny after opening I think like 5 boxes of it so took 2 sets of Dragonball, 1 for someone who could not come and 1 set of Naruto with an extra Luffy

Only assembled the One Piece set

Also grabbed these mini helmets for a steal price having to pick the nicest 3!

Boba, Scout and AT AT Driver

Well saw this! Character Series Vol. 1 Canal by Shunya Yamashita! Was searching high and low back then and could not get. Now its available at a price lower than preorder back then! How to resist!

The artwork by Shunya of Canal

The actual item

My unopened figure
Since taking pics, took down my Vol 2 of the Character Series, Nasca
Nasca and Canal

Well picked up One Piece POP series Franky which is one of my favourite characters in the anime! It going for almost half of the preorder price! Managed to cancel my preorder and get this piece at high the price!Well had many great hauls over at the Toys Carnival, phone kept ringing with people asking where was I and all. Apologies to my friends for not able to spend more time as there was really too many people asking for a piece of me on different things. Will upload pics of the event once I get em. Well hanged around with my friend for some time chit chatting over coffee before meeting another group of friends at CSC. I must say CSC had less people with the carnival luring a big bulk of the people away. Collected some stuff over there again.

Black Alternity GTR Optimus Prime or Nemesis Prime.
I must say this is the nicest looking one among the 3 colours, or perhaps I really love the black colour..

All 3 colours Red, Silver and Black

Collected also my Marvel Bishoujo by Shunya, the Black Widow. Really love the face sculpt which is really well done. The drawback is that I find it really small. Was shocked at the size when I got it as the price isnt really that cheap. Its a 1/8 scaled figure but PVCs sizes are quite different under different series and companies.

Well great hauls day ended with coffee and cheesecake at Killiney's after a heavy downpour as we wait for my friend's dad to come pick us up due to the amount of hoots and the rain. The cheesecake was not really that fantastic. Well made up by the great hauls that I have ha..

How to be Rich

I always tell my friends, there are 3 ways to get rich:

1. Born rich
2. Strike rich
3. Marry rich

Born rich -- simply born with a silver spoon, something you cant control or change

Strike rich -- winning the lottery, something you can achieve from the Chinese New Year 10 million Toto yearly

Marry rich -- need I say more?

But that brought about a quote from my friend,

"If your father is not rich its not your fault, but if your father-in-law is not rich, its your fault!"

so you need what you need to do lol.

Another activities filled day starting in the noon with a 1 hour wait for someone to arrive resulting in me being late, despite planning the meetup half an hour in advance, crappy. Well after meeting my friend we saw this dragonball keychain tikam machine and decided to try our luck on the Shen Long piece. 1st 3 tries ended up with 3 different pieces which was pretty good but no Shen Long piece. Decided to go try it again after a short walk as I thought luck was pretty good on our side but end up getting 4 extras zzZ.

the tikams

Caught Transformers 2 at GV Marina. 2 advice, firstly if u watching at GV dun go in too early as we were more than 15mins late and the show did not even start when we went in, unless you wish to catch the trailers along with the huge amount of advertisements. Secondly do not drink too much water as TF2 is almost 2.5 hours and you will have to piss in your pants if you take too much liquid and still wana catch the whole show. Overall the movie was pretty good with lots of explosions and fights especially the part which Optimus Prime took on 3 of the Decepticons. Well another reason for guys would be Megan Fox who looked really hot in the show along with Isabel Lucas, the hot Species wannabe with a long robotic tongue.

Isabel Lucas

Some bad points, some scenes was very fast, one yawn with you closing your eyes and you could have part of the action. Non-Transformers friends would have difficulty recognising the robots as think it wasn't really clear on who was what. 1 thing I didn't get it, if the weapon that destroyed Constructicons is so powerful? Why not just use it to destroy everything?

After that went looking around at toys and picked up Star Wars Saesee Tiin Jedi Fighter. Cool orange coloured fighter. Its design is longer and slimmer than other Jedi fighers like Anakin and Obi Wan's fighters. 1 bad thing, the droid is fixed firmly to the fighter, cant even turn its head. Other than that the usual missiles firing features along with detachable wings and a stand below to let the fighter stand up. Oh and the cock pit for the pilot, in this case Saesee Tiin, to seat in.

Saesee Tiin's orange Star Fighter

Had dinner at Funan Centre's food court after being drawn by Nasi Briyani some people were having. Well wasn’t the chicken was not too bad but the mutton was too fatty and not soft I felt and the rice was kind of sticky. Must go for North Point's Nasi Briyani some time again. Missed the fireworks as we were walking off but a pretty good day till then although the day was drawing to an end but the night was still young.

Round 2 of the activities started meeting up with my buddies after 1 of em rang me saying he was near my place. Decided to meet in town instead so all 3 of us could meet which seemed like a bad choice in the end. After accompanying my friend to get a T shirt and dinner at Marina Square, we went to pick the last of the 3 musketeers up at Clarke Quay. Decided to go for beancurd at Rochor but as we passed by the crowd was mad. As if they were giving away free beancurd, there were lots of people outside were waiting for their takeaways or orders or waiting for seats. Decided to head somewhere else but was limited but the restrictions of activities that we can do in Singapore at night. After wasting much petrol decided to head to near my place for some food and drinks. Halfway there, my friend said he was pretty tired and suggested dropping me then my friend off and heading back instead. Honestly quite paiseh about it but since already there might as well get a drink as its really been a while since we met. Was joined by another friend of mine for some food and beer and talk cock session. As we grow older we have different commitments be it work, family, gf or bf and life is no longer as carefree and full of different problems and obstacles. Its hard at times find time to do little and simple things in life. From a group of 4 buddies to be left with 3 is just as sad as any relationship. Well hopefully able to meet up soon again under better circumstances and time and place ha. Just to clarify ha it wasn't a trick to get you there Kenny ha.. It was too impromptu. Next time we go for a good dinner and drinking session ba. Good luck in your job man.

Well Ice Age 3 is screening now. Loved Part 1 and 2 was not too bad, will catch 3 soon hopefully. For now McDonalds is giving away Ice Age 3 toys and I just had to get Scrat when I saw it. Who can forget the squirrel and its nut lol.. Will considering getting all but having to eat so many Happy Meals is abit scary. Will see how it goes.

the leaf will show a squirrel face when you rub it

you can shoot the nut out by pressing the button on its bottom left in the 1st pic

Relationship with people

Quote of the day

"The more I get to know about people, the more I love my dog"

My friend told me something over a round of beer the other day. My friend told me something, " The love between your partner or spouse will never be as close the love between the mother and her child as the love is bonded by blood." A simple and enlightening statement. I have always gave the most to the one I love the most then followed by friends and lastly family. Sad to say the returns have been improportional to the efforts I have put in. Failed relationship, many friendship which turn out bad and fruitless and end of the day parents give in unconditionally to me encouraging me to move on. Well recently one of my Aunt passed away, it really shows how fragile life is making us realising we should cherish those around us more. All these has made me changed my values and perception towards the complex relationship between humans. For the better? I do not know what is better or how much has it changed but I know for sure it has definitely changed my thinking about many things. Well just like the quote lol..

A pretty busy Friday, after a long night of mahjong, after waking up I went to settle some stuff only to meet with some obstacles. Started off with a failed visit to Redhill and then went to SIM to pay my school fees. As like everywhere else you are scanned like a specimen for the now widely spread virus H1N1, which after the first scan I was given a sticker and I dropped it and went to another place to make an enquiry something and having drop the sticker I was too go through temperature taking again. Well after which I made my enquiry on retaking my failed subject OB to check if I can change to a resit instead. With a highly inefficiently manual pullout ticket-queue system, which failed to work at first and along with no one seated in the counters to ask for assistance, showing again our highly 'effecient' services, I was in for a long wait. Then I was told if I wanted to appeal it should be done before end of the June, which was already over so they pretty much cant do anything about it except for me to suck my own thumb and retake it. After a long queue I paid my fees and went for my favourite Yong Tau Fu and made my way out of school and upon boarding the bus, I wanted to take out my comic to read only to realise it was missing and hurried off the bus which is thankfully just at the 1st stop after where i boarded. Hurried back and collected the book and rushed down to City Hall to meet a buyer but just as I was about to reach, I got a call saying "Hey not meeting today le, as I left my MP3 player at home", as we were supposed to test his ear phones he planned to get so end up I decided to make my way over to Marina GV to get tickets for Saturday's Transformers 2. Luckily nothing much crappy happened after I gotten the tickets. Ended with a late night talk cock session at HK Cafe after dinner.

Share an incident on my visit to Kinokuniya at Takashimaya one day. My friends and I were happily browsing for books until a guy with purple streaks on his hair caught our attention. What gained attention wasnt his hair after he was closer to us. It was his dressing. A top showing his really fair n white tummy along with a low cut pants showing his butt crack. For the moment I think my brain failed to funtion for a couple of seconds totally unable to comprehend and disgest what I just saw. Should you see such a sight, be sure not to pick up any books from the floor, as the action would perhaps result in a thrown apart ass. lol.. Till now I still cant understand the clothes the person wore.

Well some hoots starting with a rare Marvel Select Dr Doom, check out the metallic tentacles man..

This cute mini Chopper tikam which I gotten on my first try ha.. Really love the eyes.. Its the expression Chopper and Luffy make when they see fascinating things ha.. This mini toy really made my day man lol.

Demise of Michael Jackson

Woke up hearing a shocking news of the death of one of my favourite singers, King of PoP, Michael Jackson. He died at the age of 50 from cardiac arrest at his home. I really love his dance and songs. His moonwalk and gravity defying lean and crotching grabbing moves. His best record selling album Thriller, even till today, along with Billie Jean and Beat It are my MJ's favourite songs. His life has revolved around his surgeries, his childhood, his law suits with the kids other than his dance and music. Another thing is his Neverland Ranch from Peter Pan's island which MJ says he is like Peter Pan who never grows up. Among all of his costumes my favourite is his military inspired costume, History. The gold and black looks really classy and stylish and i clearly remember it for his History World Tour with the costume. On a sidenote his more than 45 degrees lean in Smooth Criminal is with the use of a device with the shoe which he patented.

History costume


Well some of MJ's toys which I guess has appreciated now, regret not getting the cosbaby set. Really liked some of it. Didnt get the Hot Toys Michael Jackson as I think it dont really look like him. Well will wait for a better looking version which Im sure will come out soon.

MJ Cosbaby


Hot Toys Michael Jackson

Well a sad loss of a talented musician/artist. This post is to mourn for King of Pop, Michael Jackson. RIP

A Better Tommorow

It has been a very unpleasant period of time since start of year. Filled with a mixture of negative feelings, from disappointment to anguish to a stench of foul betrayal.. It has really been a crappy period of time. Though think I still haven gotten out of everything but felt better over encouragement from friends and family, through durians, coffee and the companionship. One word, thanks. Trying to stop thinking about some things which I have no control and spend time considering things I should be doing. A new direction, goal and drive to prove to myself and others. Guess its inevitable to not think back at times but like my friends keep saying "Move on", gotta brace myself together.

Had quite an eventful day last Saturday, starting with lunch at Yam Cha then followed by a toy hunt session with a friend. Started with a fruitless trip to Sunshine, missing the Gurren Laggen Kuji event. Then made way to Plaza Singapura, which now having quite a few toy shops, from Basement 1's Action City all the way to the top with Comics Connection, some Jap merchandise shop and Simply Toys along with the others. Then made way to Latendo, which I haven been to since it moved over to Leisure Park. Bad choice of location I must say, though there are many facilities like cinema, ice skating rink and all, there wasnt really much crowd on a Saturday. Well nevertheless the overall visit wasnt too bad, as Latendo's dispaly seem to have increased. You can always get to see alot of interesting stuff over there. And well 'managed' to get a tikam which we wanted lol.

Well decided to catch a movie there and decided to watch Drag Me to Hell. Actually didnt sleep through the night and was pretty tired but the show was not bad, with quite a original and interesting story ha and didnt doze off throughout the show. Quite a few scary scenes along with much gore n gruesome parts though the last part was kinda predictable. Basically its about the female lead, Christine Brown, a loan officer getting cursed by an old gypsy woman after rejecting her appeal for an extension on her loan and how she gets haunted and tries to fight the curse. Before the show started went to the arcade and played games which I haven't played for a long time or have never tried before. Oh played the basketball shooting game at the Zone X arcade at Dhoby Ghaut MRT for the 1st time before going over to Latendo, always thought it should not be that hard but well I was wrong! Pretty tiring and different from the actual rim and its addictive man ha. Anyways played Bishy Bashy, Mario Go-kart and the Air Hockey over at the arcade and it was fun ha. It was overall quite a fun day with good activities and companionship, haven had such fun for quite some time. Should do it more often, well TF2 time then.. Ah didnt expect to be a goer for horror shows ha. Yeah thanks for the fun day.

Well since you mentioned, this is for you, Carue under POP One Piece line. Its called 跑得快 and is Princess Vivi's rider in the story and like its chinese name, it runs really fast ha though it looks kinda clumsy. The action it makes is when it obeys and understand the order given cute right? haha.. It actually belongs to a clan of duckies lol..

And since the last post was on Red Hulk decided to take some pics of my Red Hulk figures.

The small 3.75" Marvel Fury Files

Exclusive Marvel Select Red Hulk

Marvel Legends BAF Red Hulk

The yellow Wolverine with variant black

Well newly gotten 3.75" Union Jack as comparison to the 7" one

Already sold out my extra loose Marvel Legends Red Hulk so only got old blur pics to make do with till i opened up mine

Romance

A late outing at night hours ago on the topic of romantic movies made type this post 4am rather than sleeping. I must say I love romance shows like many women do. My Sassy Girl, Kate and Leopold, Love Actually, Jerry Maguire, Top Gun and many more. I think many people have different definitions of romance, a typical candle light dinner or the moment of the beautiful sunset.. Well I think one only live once and in this one lifetime we chase and pursue after the sweetest romance. To me its everything that plays a part, from one's movements, gestures and speeches to the place, enviroment and ambience and most importantly the person and the feeling from deep within your heart. A candle light dinner with your best guy buddy isnt romantic I would say and on the other hand, a simple fare with your loved one can also be the most romantic meal one can have.

Everyone or should I say many long for a love so romantic, that it can be a story that can be passed on like Romeo and Juliet. I had thought romance was short lived, it cannot be too long as it feels so sweet within the limited time, making it more memorable and treasuring it more at that very moment. Stars, flowers and passion was something I think romance cant lack of. To me flowers, especially roses are beautiful as at that moment it lives and blooms most beautifully before it withers, something artificial flowers cant give no matter how beautiful it is. Over time my definition of it has changed although almost a bulk of it has remained. Can money bring about romance? I believe with it you can create a romantic and beautiful scene easily but even without you can create a less extravagant one. The ambience and feeling must connect with the right person ultimately.

A lover gives the most romantic and sweetest moments but a life partner gives the greatest security and faith. Can that come together? I do not know but chances are low I suppose, a good lover do not necessary make a good life partner. The romantic moments perhaps are to be reminisced. Perhaps we love romance movies as we hardly get them in real life and if gotten, its short lived and never a happy ending. A smooth sailing and stable relationship is far from a romantic relationship but a short lived one, with lots of outbursts of emotions and feelings comprising of tears of both happiness and sadness brings about one I guess.. As stability and routine may not only be the death of love but also the death of romance. For I thought the most romantic moment for one is when the guy asks for the hand of the gal, with a simple "Will you marry me?" like what we see in stories and movies. Different ways, settings and languages but the same objective.

自古多情空余恨，此恨绵绵无绝期. As perhaps those full of emotions and commit and give in alot into relationsips alway leave behind lots of regrets.. and these regrets continue and last for a long time.. disturbing the person eternally perhaps.. As the touches of your fingers and the dampness of your kisses slip through like the wind, he opens his palm and let the memories trickle through and hope that someday somewhere something will fill the empty and hollow hole..
I ask what is the path we seek over the 5.5 years, is the romance not suffice or is it the security cannot be felt, only to leave behind a trail of questions which may never be answered..

Adding on to my misc purchases are DCUC's Gentleman Ghost. Gotten the figure alone, loose without its BAF Giaganta part. Its unique design without a head and white suit really attracts me. I love the classic tuxedo design with the cloak and hat along with the cane and gun not forgetting the transparent bottom half of the figure.



Another is the Marvel Fury Files 3.75" latest wave, Red Hulk. Check out the sheer size of it wanting to burst out of the packaging, filling almost the whole of the packaging. The kind which you call value for money lol. This is a rare piece with almost everyone looking for it and I gotten one of it.

Losing our competitiveness

Recently there has been alot of discussions about foreign talent, well almost in all industries there is a huge number of foreign workers especially Filipinos and Chinese Nationals. No doubt in certain aspects or sectors perhaps we are not as developed and may require certain specialties of the foreign talent but how much is sufficient? The recent badminton saga of JJC and RJC, having a full squad 7 Chinese nationals for female team. Well a few perhaps 2 to 3 would be good but having a full team of 7 what our own locals? No doubt many would have been poached to the top sports school, but wouldnt the school alone have other talents as well? Same as some of the industries, we spend hefty sums to hire foreign talent, cant part of the amount be used to nuture or scout for similar talents locally? There seems to be an over reliance on the usage on foreign workers, apart from your Maria maids, Filipinos can be all over especially in service sectors like telemarketing, customer service and retail line as well as healthcare sectors. Chinese Nationals are all around in food and service line as well.
Then again at times I feel some times we only have ourselves to blame for not being competitive giving people or employers reasons to hire foreigners than locals. Was at Action City the other day and asked for an item and the staff, a Filipino greeted with zest "Hello sir, welcome to Action City! Is there anything that I can help you with?" along with a smile. When the item I was looking for was not available she replied "Sorry Sir all our stuff for that series is all displayed there at the display cabinet", walking over and showing the display shelf. It was then followed by "Sir are you a collector of Star Wars stuff? If so if you want you can leave down your number so if there is any Star Wars stuff that arrives we will give you a call". This kind of service offered is excellent, compared to many of the people who just give you the blatant answer "You see do on the shelf have? No means no more" and dont even bother to check for you and many times many staff have poor product knowledge and they do not smile. I enjoy good service and having bad encounters of service seems common at many stores.
I must say foreigners are more passionate in what they do overall as compared to locals, although not all. Greater passion, more hardworking, less or equivalent pay, better attitude and less family commitments all give employers a good reason to hire them than us. If we remain as such, not suprised one day we get eliminated, though overall service has been better I must admit. A simple smile or thank you will give great encouragement or a letter of compliment can be given rather than the usual complains that we Singaporeans love.

Well time for some toys. One of my favourite anime or manga -- One Piece! This is a pirate adventure story highly recommended! The author puts in great effort in his drawings, story and thoughts. One of the best figures for One Piece is the Portrait of Pirates (P.O.P.) series. I have almost all the figures and adding two of my latest acquisitions -- Mihawk and Aokiji. Both are really big and tall and looks really good especially Mihawk. Check out the sword man!