Retro Playground!

Ahhh these were the playgrounds of my youth; no moulded plastic pieces or soft rubber mats. It was cold, hard concrete, metal, wood and sand... Oh that dreadful sand. Sometimes you could smell pee and sometimes, cats would use it as their open toilet.

But still, there was a charm to it, a uniqueness each one had, an experience each had to offer to a child.

Toys i collect! - Gundam - Pt 1

Wow, how do i begin? I think it started when i collected those thin little books sold at those mamak stalls in gardens and some other bookshops in days gone by, they were in color, but very thin, and each had artwork and pictures from various Real/Super Robo genres of the time.

I remember some of the artwork being really impressive (well, to me at that time anyway), and truthfully, i didn't even KNOW what Gundam was! (Heck, no internet in the 70-80s man). Another thing that didn't help was that it was near IMPOSSIBLE to find Gundam merch in SG.. although i remember getting a weapon set at the mamak stall in front of the theatre in gardens (it's the mall myVillage now!) Here's a pic of that set; i honestly though it would have the robots, but alas it only contained the kits for the weapons (which were quite cool actually).

Another toy i got was this diecast one my dad got for me (in the pic below on the right), i still have a blurry pic of it somewhere, but it was bought at an Emporium at Peninsula Plaza longgg time ago, it's die cast, super retro and not very poseable... but cool to me then haha.

Although there were drips of imports for kits to SG (i remember getting a GM kit at Daimaru Liang Court for.. 10 bucks? It needed glue darnnit, no snap fit back then) It was not until the early to mid 90's that PROPER Gundam kits were imported into SG by ShengTai toys... oh man, i remember rushing down to inKids at Dhoby Ghaut (remember that?) to snap up the kits!

Toys i Collect - Transformers! - Pt 2

There was deluge of TF figures in the past few years, some good some bad, The Alternators line introduced realistic licensed cars with a high die-cast content. That line shrank down to the Alternity line with a few licensed cars, but in a smaller scale.

But i think the standout line was to be the Masterpiece series of figures from Takatomy.. some hits and misses of course. The early figures weren't fantastic (the first prime was still awesome though), but i think it was after the release of the v2 prime, and Sideswipe that it started getting popular. There were of course tons of repaints, but even those were at least unique in their own way.

In between all this was the Transformers Movie toys, these "Bayformers" had it's own intepretation of how the bots should be like, and i'm sure it has it's fans, but most of the movie toys... um, i'd rather stay away from. :p

Also, in recent years, Third party companies have been releasing unlicensed TF toys to collectors, and i have to say, some of these are really impressive compared to what Hasbro releases. The only downside being the cost and QC as these aren't made on a very large scale compared to the larger firms.

So what's coming up for collectors nowadays? I'm looking forward to the upcoming Star Saber release, and hope Takatomy continues the Encore line; there are still quite a few unreleased figures out there! :)

Blast from the past!

Nice pic! Interesting how the coastline has changed, most of it's reclaimed now. A lot of recognizable landmarks though!

Old gardens

Cool photo of the old bus stop at gardens... The shop houses are still there haha!

Another Sunday!

Been a hectic past few weekends, cos i was shifting most of the stuff from my old place at AMK to the storage room at Extraspace; you'll be surprised at the number of rooms that are already taken up! Guess in space-starved Singapore, there's not much choice since the govt keeps squeezing people into smaller and smaller units! :p

Also getting ready for my last in-camp-training next week; sort of mixed feelings, as with the Army, there's always a measure of dread when it's mentioned (must be psychological!). However, also a bit of nostalgia involved; here's a group of guys i spent the past 10 years or so with together during our reservist training, some people have dropped in and out but the core group is always there along with the cameraderie.

Well, not getting younger i suppose! Anyway it's for 1 and a half weeks only, bet it'll feel longer than that once i'm in!

On another note.... only 2 months more to Christmas! One time of the year i really look forward to! :D Time sure flies.

Back to the old room! - Part 2

Found this old gundam model kit i had, price tag was still there! Was from the old oriental emporium, probably bought it from Hougang as i frequented there quite often when i was young. :p Most shocking thing? The Friggin price, even without the offer it was like, 6 bucks plus. Now i don't think it's possible to get that type of pricing!

Found the Starwars Monopoly Set that En Lai and my sis bought for me, it's pretty cool, and was released around the time of the Star Wars Special Edition re-releases.

There were diecast player pieces
which were cool, and the "Hotels"
were the Mill. Falcon! :p

Last up, i found a coupla old games, TIE fighter, C&C Renegade, MGS for the PC.... ahhh good times! :D

Starcom Starhawk F/B

Finally, got around to opening the "Fruit Box", and sorting out the stuff that was inside, a LOT of trees were harmed in the process! The guy used like, tons of newspaper to bundle everything....... well, that's better than having the stuff crushed i guess. :p

This is the Euro boxed version of the Starhawk F/B, the funny thing about the Euro boxes is that they'll give RANDOM figures in their sets! Yeah, kinda weird i know. Europe had it's own range of figues which can be considered rare. (They were also sold in two-packs with the original figures from the 1st few waves)

I always wondered WHY the Starhawk had two cockpits, and who was supposed to sit in the other one, imagine my surprise when i opened the box to find the euro co-pilot of the Starhawk! :) Nice bonus i guess.

To battlestations!

Picked these four off evilbay recently, boxes not in the greatest condition, but the items inside were totally untouched and new.... how do these guys store their stuff man? :p

These four playsets were released in 1988 to Europe, but i'm sure we got these too as i remember seeing them in departmental stores!

Anyway, been trying to find HOW to store them, i got boxes all over the place, wifey sure to nag soon!

Interesting fact : there were TWO more mini bases that were supposed to be released; the big cannon fortress and missile station.

Got around to opening the package too! It'll take a while to sort the stuff. :)