"Happy 2012!!"

Would like to wish everyone a Happy 2012!

"Macross Frontier: Bandai's YF-29, now with Super Parts!"

Remember some time ago I scoffed at Bandai's YF-29 design and wasn't too keen on getting it? Now it's sold out everywhere and the prices on ebay have skyrocketed to US500 each!!! The fighter plane does play a reasonable part in the final battle with Brera's VF-27 in Macross F: Wings of Goodbye. And now Bandai has released the compulsory super parts. I pulled some pics from gamu-toys:

SUPER.WICKED @_@

Arghhhh I should've bought it last time!!!! :( Bandai, please reissue it...........! I promise never to doubt u agaaaaaaiiiiiiinnnnnnn~~~~~~~~~~~

"Birthday 2011!"

Went to Daorae Korean BBQ restaurant on 22nd Nov to pre-celebrate my birthday for 2011. But we didn't order the BBQ set coz it was too expensive! Hehe, just ordered one meal for each of us.


Ok, I don't look too bad after the fall..hahaha


Wasn't long before they served us the usual starter dishes


Wife's favourite, the kimuchi soup with tofu and pork... served with rice


My fried rice with glass noodles


comes with soup

Then they surprised us by handing out these freebies:

steamed egg..


pancake...


fruits...


and this sweet/ginger-ish desert.

Wow! All for RM40. Really satisfied meal!! :D The next day I had lunch with my colleagues at Kim Gary , utilizing the 50% discount voucher, and had a light japanese dinner at Azuma. Had to drop by TRU, managed to find myself a 2nd Marvel Universe figure:

Darkhawk... ain't he cool? :P

"Yamato's 1/60 VF-17S Diamond Force!"

Macross news has been a bit slow around here, but coming this Dec is the long-awaited VF-17S Diamond Force from Macross 7! This is ace pilot Gamlin Kizaki's ride~~

Fighter:



Drooling... it's super sleek!

Gerwalk:

Weird Gerwalk mode, coz there are no arms :P

Battroid:


Wicked 4 antenna skull-type head :P

HLJ has it on pre-order for 22320 Yen, which is about RM921!!! That's why Macross news is slow around here :-S

"Star Wars Ultimate FX Lightsabers!"

I'll been slowly collecting these, starting with Darth Vader's. Found that the quality is quite good, and that it really feels like a real lightsaber, so I went and bought the next one, Jedi Luke's lightsaber.. and yesterday finally getting Anakin's lightsaber. Complete collection of Blue, Red and Green sabers:

Vader's


Anakin's


Jedi Luke's


Altogether now! Luke's green is the brightest one~~

The hilts are plastic, but they are given metallic paint to look, well, like metal.. The tube is plastic too, so there's no fear of breaking it as you practice swinging them around :P I should take a video to show the "light-up" and motion sensor effects too; really cool! Each retails for RM159.90, but TRU is having them for RM139.90 each now.

"Heroic Age Captain America!"

Found this Heroic Age Captain America (Comic Series) from Uncle's shop going for RM29.90 (retail price RM39.90)! I usually would only collect Movie Series line, but I like this figure's design with the shiny colors~~

Macho look


His shield springs open blades


Knife and pistol

Seems like Captain America figures are set to follow Thor into the clearance bins... then I'll grab a few more Comic Series design which are rather unique, like the WW2 Battlefield CA! :D

"The trip that was not meant to be..."

Well, things didn't go exactly as planned. I had finished packing on Friday night for the trip to KL, excited and all. But on Saturday 2AM, I woke up to go to the washroom. As I was coming out, I slipped and fell forward, hitting my head on the floor. THUD!! That is one sickening sound! I was just one or two steps away to go back to bed, and now I'm lying on the floor clutching at my bleeding head! Wife was shocked speechless. Drove me to Pantai emergency and had the wound cleaned up. Fortunately, the wound is an abrasion (superficial) and does not require any stitching. More importantly, the Doctor asked if I fainted, or if I had double vision, or blurred vision, any of these and I would need to go for CT scan. Luckily I did not, but if any of these develop over the next few days, it could be a symptom of internal bleeding... :-S

Hey, I don't look too bad rite?


Look again... now I am Two-Face!

Actually, when I bought these tickets a few weeks ago, I had a funny feeling like I was not going to get to sit the bus. Oh well, at least I live to fight another day! And so did Arsenal, who scored an epic 3-5 victory over Chelsea on Saturday nite! I was so happy cheering that I almost forgot that I had injured my arms during the fall! :P

"Wedding week again!"

No update this weekend as I'm traveling to KL to attend Mr Raymond &Ms Sheau Yee's wedding at Doubletree by Hilton! :D

"Captain America: Hydra army growing!"

Happy Deepavali! It's a holiday today, so let me spam some pics of my newest acquisitions: more Hydra troopers from Captain America!


Red Skull and the growing Hydra army! I was so happy to have found another pair of Hydra troopers in Parkson :D


Cap in trouble...


... nah, he can handle anything! :D

"Six-course lunch @ Ming Garden, Penang Times Square"

For Wife's birthday, we went to Ming Garden restaurant at Penang Times Square.



The grand entrance, complete with the lion.

The six-course meal (each person gets one set of these):


1) Appetizer


2) Shark's fin soup


3) Wrapped in silver foil...


... aha~~ hoi sum, mushrooms, fish maw...


4) Fish slices


5) Yee mee with crab meat


6) Dessert

Verdict:
GOOD: Great food! #1-5 were just plain awesome. Even the yee-mee, which I usually don't like. #6 is so-so.

GOOD: Nice environment. Plenty of table and quiet ambiance.

BAD: Loooong waiting time... Dish #1 took forever to come, and while #2-4 came at the right pace, #5 took ages again. And we had to keep reminding them where is #6. We ended up spending nearly 2 hours there!

BAD: Portion is way too small.

BAD: The set costs RM45 (I think) PER PERSON. Yeah, it's plain excessive.

Maybe next time we'll just go for the usual dishes :P

"Marvel! Thor! Captain America!"

Lets welcome Dr Doom, from the Marvel Universe line!

Don't worry, this line will be purchased very selectively... only figures which have good sculpt/paint/appearance will be inducted into the collection :D Such as this guy, Dr Doom... looks menacing and "generic" enough to fit in any universe.

Lets get an update on the other Marvel collections going on:

1) Thor. Easily my favorite movie of the year. Which is why I'm taking extra effort to complete the main characters:


Frost Giant, Odinn, Thor. Loki, Volstagg, Fandral, Hogun

I need Sif, the Destroyer and probably King Loki as well. Maybe a few more Frost Giants might make it look even more interesting ;)

2) Captain America. It's a nice enough movie, although kinda draggy towards the end.


Hydra (Dark Threat), Hydra soldier, Red Skull, Crossbones, Captain America, Winter Soldier

The Hydra soldiers are perfect for army building... if u can find more! Distribution from Hasbro again sucks to the max, as it did with Thor's line. The shelves are overloaded with multiple versions of Captain America. Come one, let loose on the cool figures!

And now, with the Avengers trailer already out, we can look forward to another round of Marvel fest next year! Avengers Assemble!!

"Visitors from Japan"

We had some visitors from our Japanese counterparts over the past 2 weeks. Communication (language) was at times funny as both sides were trying to guess what the other is saying! Only their manager can speak fluent (more or less) English.

Here, at the end of their visit, they invited us to Kampachi for dinner. Hopefully we've hinted enough to them to request our boss to send us to Japan for any follow-up issues! ;)

"ATR Teambuilding 2011: Cycling @ Georgetown!"

This year's dept teambuilding is a rather unique one: cycling tour of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Penang! We started at 8AM and it didn't take long to reach the first stop, Chew Jetty:

A long walk to the end, where we can see the jetty. I don't know if it was me or what, but I was sweating buckets that early in the morning!

Next up, Cheah Kongsi:

We had a tour leader who was giving a lot explanation about the history of each places and the significance, but I wasn't really paying attention becoz of the sweltering heat and at the same time, trying to snap some pics :P

Like this one... hehe.. framing up the picture using the barriers, to give it a sense of depth...


Our bicycles parked..


Everyone was crowding at this tree... must be very valuable becoz it was chained!


ah.. some figures close-up


After that was a well-needed stop for breakfast! The heat was really getting to me... and had to wear these safety jackets some more...


Next:


These places are great for snapping photos. Here I have my favourite model #1 to pose for me... hahaa...


Another pic to showcase the 'framing' effect... did it work? u be the judge!

Favourite model #2.. Ok, u can see clearly I wasn't paying attention to whatever the tour guide was saying becoz I can't describe what are the places we stopped. The routine is like, u cycle a few hundred metres through the heritage part of the city and stop. What's nice is that u get to zigzag around the maze of inner roads that are very difficult to access by cars. There are shortcuts everywhere!

Ok, this I remember.. it's one of the last places where handmade joss-sticks are produced by an old man...



Our last stop is the Nyonya house. If it looks familiar, it's becoz we took our wedding photos here! :D


Ok, back to the starting point and return the bicycle. It's a rather different type of teambuilding, I must say...

But the highlight (and reward for all the hard work) is of course, lunch at E&O Hotel!



Favourite model #3.... haha..

Bike rental costs RM60++, corporate rate. Check out their website, probably they can do a better job explaining the World Heritage Sites!