State of the Hobby

I collect toys. Or more accurately, "Collectibles" as they are know today. I remember a time long ago when i was a kid, i did not have to scour the shelves for toys that i wanted; they were always readily available, and the only difficulty then was convincing my parents to buy them for me.

Fast forward 20-30 years, and those "kids" have grown up, and now yearn for the good old days and to have those same toys in their hands.

I see dark times ahead in this Hobby. You see a certain pattern to this a) the people who are collecting these toys are all around the same age/generation b) these same people have become scalpers/hoarders c) and these highly sought after items nowadays are circulating within the same generation of people and are not getting out.

What's the problem? It's not apparent now, but for the hobby to survive, it is the CHILDREN who should be playing and buying these toys, not the adults. These said "Collectors" are killing the hobby by keeping these toys out of the hands of the next generation of collectors. Sadly you can already see it happening; kids these days are more interested in Video Games, chatting and tech gadgets moreso than toys.

Companies are not helping either by having "Limited Edition" or low runs of items, because, once again, these are all leeched by scalpers out there. I know that some local retailers out there are trying to stop these people by limiting what can be purchased, but eventually these evil-doers/profiteers will always find a loophole around this.

I agree with this Code of Conduct; Collect to Collect, only what you need and give other people a chance.

My toys will go to my kid one day for sure, i hope during his time, he can still enjoy collecting toys as much as i have. :)

RC Shadowhawk

Ooooo! I'd like to get my hands on this.... and blast people from the sky with Taser rounds, grenades and shotgun blasts! Nyahahaha! :p

" Variants have the option of turbine or piston engine, basic CCD TV optics, FLIR capability, thermal cameras, “fully autonomous avionics” package, laser pointers, illuminators and range finders and—wait for it—37mm or 40mm grenade launchers. There’s also an insert for 12 gauge shotgun rounds with a laser designator. Other options are limited to military users.

Shadowhawk is 7 feet long and weighs 49 lbs with a max speed of 70mph. The turbine model can stay up for 1 hour, the piston model 2 ½. It can launch in 25 knot winds, sustain flight through gusts of 45 knots and keep the camera stable at up to 25 knots"

Read more about this baby here.

Kotobukiya Tekken Bishoujou

Oooo! Coming soon is this figure from Tekken of Christie Monteiro, design is from Shunya Yamashita who has designed the rest of the Marvel Bishoujou range.

Usually not too interested in the Bishoujou range, but this one looks fantASStic! ;)

Set to Stun!

Picked up a scaled Stormtrooper E-11 Blaster Rifle recently, pretty cool even for .33 scale. :) Interesting thing is that a lot of weapons used in the Star Wars world is cobbled from old German WWII weapons; the blaster above and the Rebel blasters were British Sterling SMGs, Luke's and Han's blasters were Mauser C96 pistols, and the Sandtroopers used MG34s hehe.

Hawt Toy pRoN

Darn you Hot Toys! Stop releasing all these cool figs that make my wallet cry for mercy!

But seriously, it's a real sweet set. I didn't get the MkIV armor, so i guess the timing for this is right AND it's coming out next year anyway. :p

All that's left to do is customize some 1/6 cheerleaders like the opening to Iron Man 2! :p

Transformers - Dark of the Moon

Caught the latest TF movie yesterday, wasn't keeping my expectations too high especially after the so-so "Revenge of the Fallen". Overall wasn't too bad, at least there was SORTA a storyline running throughout all the explosions. :p

As for Rosie Huntington.... she's hot, but not Megan Fox hot. Think she stood around a lot trying to look pretty. The cuts from some scenes was kinda harsh, and a lot of WTF moments too. ( Powered up prime gets caught in... cables??!?!) and alas.... poor Megatron is relegated to 2nd tier co-starring role. ( I think Michael Bay hates Megs... see the pattern? MEGatron, MEGan Fox )

Still, will get the Blu ray when it's released in November.. if just for the 3D effects! :p

The Longest Journey - Pt 2

After a short break from the old Bukit Timah Railway station, i carried on towards Buona Vista, cutting through a secondary forest near clementi.
The scenery was nice here; thankfully there was a dirt track most of the way through, so that saved a bit of agony walking on gravel. :p

From here the weather slowly started to get hotter and hotter, plus the tracks seem to drag on. I wasn't tired but the heat was starting to get to me. So after a LONG and dreary stretch past Buona Vista, i stopped at a block of flats near commonwealth to rest and recover... and have lunch too of course. :)

So after a most hearty meal of good wonton noodles and 100 PLUS, i resumed the journey with the target of reaching Tanjung Pagar Railway Station. As the day wore on, i met lesser and lesser people along the track, and soon it was just mostly me trudging along the gravel. Man, so many times along this point i just felt like sidetracking so i didn't have to walk on the gravel.

But much like life itself, the goal itself is always sweeter when obtained through hard work and sweat; there were many exit routes presenting itself along the way and it would have been easy to take them there and then. (especially since i was running low on water and snacks. :p)

However perserverance counts, and after checking my coordinates one too many times on Google Earth, the endpoint was in sight... man i was so relieved to have reached the station, and believe me, by then i was not really in much of a mood to be taking many pictures! :)

Ah, who'd have thought a 14km trek would be so educational and inspiring? :D

Starcom Sixshooter

Man, it's been ages since i've updated on anything related to Starcom; managed to get my mitts on the 3rd Rarest (In my opinion of course) vehicle from the Starcom series, the Sixshooter.

Again, this came out much later in the series in the fourth Wave (1989), mostly in UK and Europe, but i think some reached our shores too! :)

I don't know what the sixshooter is classified under, but from the looks of it, i'd say it's a heavily armored support/transport fighter. Why the six guns then? To surprise the enemy? :)

As with most of the later series, the complexity of the mechanisms and design weren't very complex unlike the earlier vehicles, but still it looks cool nonetheless. The forward six guns deploy in a pretty neat fashion; section by section, and the rear cargo bay is actually more of a spring triggered mechanism rather than a motorised function.

The Longest Journey - KTM Railway Trek - Pt 1

Well, i decided to make a trek along the KTM track starting from the Railway Mall and ending at Tanjung Pagar Station; according to Google Earth, that would be an approximately 14km trek. Sounds easy, or so i thought. :p

Thing about it is, most of the track is covered with GRAVEL. OMG it was miserable walking on that! ( i am so glad for flat surfaces now ).

Definately need hiking boots or even army boots. I wore my PT shoes and it wasn't exactly the best thing to be walking in. But then again i saw people in sports shoes.... and even slippers! Good luck to them.

Anyway, started out at 9.45am, lotsa people already milling around and striking silly poses. On hindsight, i should have started earlier. :p The walk from railway mall past my office and Beauty world was nice, mostly shaded and lots of greenery... also now realise the train passes by a LOT of homes!

The first major stop was at the old Bukit Timah Railway station, mostly boarded up now, LTA is so efficient. But the land there is BIG. Had a break there to catch my breath and top up on H20, already a bit sweaty! I brought along like, 2 litres of water, 2 isotonic drinks and some snacks.... little did i know as the day wore on, it would just barely suffice!

Medal of Yavin

Picked up this scaled replica of the Medal of Yavin (Actually it's the Medal of Bravery, but i think it's been so commonly called the Medal of Yavin that the name has somehow stuck) from Master Replicas.

Master replicas makes pretty cool stuff, but most of it is seriously too expensive/overpriced.

Snippet of info bout the medal :

"In 0 ABY, for their efforts in destroying the Death Star, Luke Skywalker and Han Solo were awarded this honorable medal. "

Stay on Target!

Another couple of recently purchases, Luke's Xwing helmet and Wedge Antille's helmet. They should complete the range though and make the other vehicle helmets like the A/B/Y-wing helmets!

Then again, they should re-release X-wing on the PC/Consoles!

Star War Scaled Helmets - Boba Fett/Stormtrooper

Picked up some scaled Star Wars helmets recently, pretty cool little things! They're about 45% actual size, so still quite hefty, plus the interiors are also detailed. :)

Didn't open the stormie helm cos it was sealed! :p

Macross 7 VF-19 Kai Fire

This was released not too long ago, and although this is Yamato's third iteration of the VF-19 design ( The first was in 1/72, the second in 1/60 also), the engineering that went into this is WAYYYY more intricate than anything else they've done before!

The box isn't that big compared to previous releases, thankfully Yamato has done away with the 70% air to 30% toy ratio for their boxes. Still, this has quite a bit of heft as quite a bit of die-cast parts were used.

Somehow they've managed to fit all that robot into the plane mode without compromising on the look, and without it being part-former. (Here's looking at YOU Bandai! :p)

More importantly the 'gut' under the planes neck has somehow been streamlined into the body.... good job! Now, it's just to wait to the countless repaints that are sure to come!