Toys

I was again away for 3 weeks so you are not seeing me doing updates on my blog. I was away for 3 weeks serving my national service in Taiwan, actually 2 weeks to be exact in Taiwan. Fast forward, nothing interesting about my reservist. We had 2 days shopping towards the end of reservist. I went to this large mall known as “???” in Kaohsiung. I saw a Doraemon store and was excited as this is one of my favourite cartoon character. I did not buy anything Doraemon but to my surprise, I found some Taiwan edition Tomica and bought 2 sets of Triton, IQ and Lapin.There's also a large toy shop known as Fun Box. The Tomica are not expensive here but I can only carry a hand luggage not more than 7kg so I didn't buy any since there isn't any new release.Town set never fail to catch my attention. Always wanted to buy them but I don't have space to display them. Anyhow, I bought the Tomica Bridge set when I went back to Singapore. There is also a Toy'R'Us not too far away but there isn't anything interesting inside except some Tomica.Hanshin Departmental Store. Doesn't look promising for toys but who knows if you didn't give it a chance.Found the toy department. Well, nothing caught my eye here.Found the Tomica section, wanted to buy all the 3 Tomica book on the shelf because they are quite cheap but bought 2 only as they are pretty heavy.Told you, I didn't buy a lot of Tomica.I like like to thank Mr. Chung, a collector in Taiwan, who come specially to meet me. I didn't know that his home is near to my camp in Pin Dong and he drove 45 mins to my hotel in Kaohsiung. Apologies for the not so professional photo taken by me as I am rushing for time to report back to my hotel.These are the presents from Mr. Chung, thank you once again for these gifts. I am looking forward to meet you next time. I will bring a team of collectors next time to Kaohsiung to meet you (maybe). Perhaps we can meet in Hong Kong or Singapore. It's really nice to meet you and I must say that Mr. Chung is a very friendly person.

This Friday, May 24th 2013, at Noon CT, Nathan Hamill will be releasing a new colorway of his Curiosity resin figure. The Curiosity: Pop Bomb Edition is limited to a run of 5 (tasty) pieces. Each 5" tall translucent/opaque resin has been sculpted by Julie B. and produced by Oni Creations. They'll be releasing at Comicpalooza (Houston, TX) and Nathan's Online Shop for $80.00 each.

Check out this splendid set of six postcards from Luke Chueh (purchasable here for US$11.95) featuring 5" X 7" versions of "I Asked For Scrambled", the 3 x "Revenge Of The Dish" (which was derived from bootlegged imagery from Luke's in the first place LOL), and the 2 sushi images that were exclusive prints when Luke was doing his book signing tour for "Bearing The Unbearable". Really nice set and a viable option in lieu of the print, IMHO.

From customizer David Kraig comes WOLVERINE - whom started out as a 4" Munny, with the finished piece now standing about 5.5". You'd be hard-pressed to recognize the base piece from this spectacular sculpt, IMHO. And David also mentioned that he used "really stainless steal" for his blades/claws! Amazing, Much? I am not wholly sure of this piece was spoken for, but you could always commission David for one, yeh? Would be swellcool to see a "Old Man Logan: version tho! Check out more of his work via www.davidkraig.com and his online store.

From Jeremy Dale aka Valleydweller comes "Saved by Samus" = a painting he did for Gallery 1988's "Old School Video Game Art Show" in September of 2011. In the aftermath of the recent tornado disaster in Oklahoma, Jeremy was moved to list this painting on Ebay, with the proceeds meant to aid relief work."It features Earthworm Jim being carried out of rubble by Samus Aran from Metroid. The original intent of the piece was to play up that Jim had a crush on her. In light of the recent tornado disaster in Oklahoma, I hope that it becomes a bit more about the rescue itself. I'm listing this on Ebay starting at $25 to cover materials, and everything beyond that I will donate to the Red Cross." ~adds Jeremy.Jeremy also adds: "If you don't want the painting and want to help, feel free to click through and give the Red Cross some cash."

This week's League of Extraordinary Bloggers assignment is simply 'Why? No really. WHY?' My 'why' is a legitimate question, one that as yet has no resolution, but one that carries the weight of a million, nay a billion cries of 'WHY?!?!?!'. In fact, my 'why' brings forth a toy mystery so deep and wide that it may someday rival the legend of Wonderbread He-Man himself. To wit: Why did Screaming Yellow Zonkers make their own version of the Galaxy Laser Team Lobstrosity? I will go so far as to say the Galaxy Laser Team Lobster/Turtle hybrid alien monster is one of the coolest unsung aliens of our generation. First appearing in the late seventies or early eighties, this turtle lobster alien has taken on legendary status with toy collectors, being the only original (read: not Star Wars or Star Trek knock-off) character to appear in Tim Mee's Galaxy Laser Team - a set of cheap monochromatic plastic figures who all had very obvious Star Wars (or in the case of the lady, Star Trek) analogues. That alone would be enough to give the Lobstrosity legendary status for kids who grew up in the height of the original trilogy madness, but it didn't end there. Somehow the design also made it's way into a line of freebies released in the mid eighties inside the Cracker Jack wannabe Screaming Yellow Zonkers - in the form of an alien named 'Zip.' (For those not saavy, the Galaxy Laser Team Lobstrocities are on the left and right, and the Screaming Yellow Zonkers' Zip is in the middle.) I don't know how or why this design made it from GLT to SYZ, but I would really love to find out. Was the same toy designer involved in both productions? Was the Screaming Yellow Zonkers designer a closet fan of Galaxy Laser Team? Or was he a rip-off artist who had a deadline to meet and no fresh ideas? My money is on the same designer being involved in both, and figuring no one would ever notice or care that he used the same design twice. Well he was wrong, I CARE! I wouldn't even know where to begin if I thought I could solve this mystery myself, but I would sure love to someday know why the GLT Lobstrocity ended up chibi-ized in the Screamin' Yellow Zonkers' line-up as a critter named 'Zip.' At least he finally got a name. Other LOEBers ask why? Why? WHY?!?!?!

A "surprising" showcase at the recent weekend's Star Wars Day Jakarta's "Art Project", was the display of David The Killer's resin figure! Recently teased, the resin figure donned it's Storm Trooper helmet for his public display debut! Yes, it has two interchangeable heads :) Dubbed "DTK", the figure had an Ultraman "toy" grasped in one hand, while the other had a stick of cigarette - both vices of David - who mentioned: "…for those who are asking, yes this will be made for sale in the future, still figuring out some colours and concepts, thanks for the support guys!" DTK was on display next to the illustration by Fredy Chandra (Shown bottom-right). Stay tuned for further product and availability updates, folks!

3A Toys will be releasing Atlas + P-body (from PORTAL 2) on May 25th, 2013 at 9:00am Hong Kong time - available online via www.bambalandstore.com. There will be an exclusive BAMBALAND EXCLUSIVE 2-Figure Set priced at US$340, while singles of ATLAS and P-body is priced at US$190 each. This is a pre-order. Singles will be offered to retailers at a later date but the 2-Figure Set is exclusive to Bambaland only. Images seen in the slideshow video above were made available in a special 3AVOX. The video shown below features the boot up sequence for P-body and ATLAS' optical light-up sensor display. (The flickering you see is due to the video camera and is not indicative of the final product.) FIGURE SPECIFICATIONS: - ATLAS is approximately 27.5 cm (10.8?) in height - P-body is approximately 30.5 cm (12?) in height - ATLAS and P-body each need 1 x CR2 battery to power their Optical Sensor light-up feature - Portal Devices need 2 x AG4 batteries - Each character comes with their own Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device - The Portal Devices are removable and not permanently attached to the characters - Each character features illuminated Optical Sensor displays with animated boot-up sequence - Both figures feature torso sections that are removable from their bodies - The eyelids on each character can be manually opened or closed to create different expressions

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With the recent arrival of Micro Drifter Rip Clutchgoneski and these Micro Drifters … … of Carla Velsos and Lewis Hamilton, like it’s large diecast brethren, all the WGP racers have been released. You’ll also notice the Micro Drifters logo loses Francesco & Lightning as part of the design as Micro Drifters will soon add [...]