How to prepare your travel luggage for lugging toys home from overseas shopping - Most people use a small boxy trolley luggage to pack the things they need to wear and use when going on an overseas trip.  Many a times, we don’t really know what kind of toys we might buy during the trip, much less know the size of the toys and their packaging to cater a space for them in our luggage.

A suggestion is to pack in some foldable hand carry travel bags (those cylindrical shaped travel bags that some tour agencies tend to give out to their customers for free) in your travel trolley luggage.  If you have no problems hand carrying your toy purchases in their given shopping bags, then do it that way if you prefer. 

If not, some MOC and smaller MIB toys are better off packed in your boxy trolley luggage to protect them.  Use your clothes as padding to stop the toys from moving about in your trolley luggage.  Your excess clothes can be packed into the foldable travel bags that you brought along and then padlocked before checking them all in with the main luggage!

Differentiate between impulse buying and passionate buying of fad toys - Fad toys do what they do, they are sold to people using a marketing strategy that based on hype at the point in time, especially for movie related toys. 

The hype usually reaches a high point where collectors get most crazy about the toys and there is frenzy to grab them.  But when the movie stops showing in the cinemas and after thehype dies down, the toys in the stores become peg and shelf warmers, while those already in our collections are reminders of our unexplainable short term craze over them back then. 

So in short, do think and consider very carefully before you part with your hard earned income, and follow the herd instinct with other people in the next fad toys frenzy!

Some toys deteriorate in tropical climate - I’ve had vintage My Little Pony and She-Ra toys from the 80’s whose plastic surfaces became oily or sticky with age and exposure to our hot and humid climate.  Most of the times they can be salvaged by using disposable wet wipes to rub onto the affected surfaces to remove the oily and sticky layers. 

If you are comfortable with washing your toys, you can also consider running them under tap water, then rub them thoroughly with soap before rinsing them.  Sometimes a few rounds of washing are required to remove all the oil and dirt.  

Toys with rooted hair can have added steps of having their hair shampooed, conditioned and then rinsed.  Leave them to dry off naturally or under a fan, instead of using a hair drying on them. 

Sometimes in the most unfortunate circumstances, the rooted hair becomes too brittle with age and exposure that they break off easily, especially when you wet the hair during washing.  At this stage, the toy is ruined.  By then, you either have to discard it, or send it to a customizer to re-root it with replacement hair.  That would mean extra costs!

Know the hidden costs of toy collecting - Do realise that in the midst of this hobby, you do inevitably somehow end up incurring more costs like: shipping costs to import them, plus getting special display cabinets, storage boxes, zipper bags of all sizes, cleaning and customizing materials, and even self-storage rental fees etc. to keep and maintain your toys.  Hence the costs of toy collecting do not just end at the point of purchasing the respective toys!

Keep proper toy inventory records of not only the cost of each toy purchase, but also where exactly you have stored them.  This makes retrieving and pricing them for resale more convenient, should you choose to clear them away one day.  In a way, it also facilitates an exit strategy for your toy hobby should you decide to call it quits one day!

I recall reading about a similar topic to this on Jcee’s blog some time ago.  I’ll be going off for my mid year short vacation to Hong Kong tomorrow and will be back 5 days later. 

While I’ve finished packing all the things I need to use for my trip, I’m still considering whether to bring a toy along for fun photography while on holiday.  I used to do this many years ago when I was much newer into toy collecting.  For my previous vacation to the US last year, I didn’t do it.

One thing about bringing toys out with me is that I worry they might get damaged, lose their parts, or worse, get completely lost by some unforeseen mishap, which I am not prepared to accept.  That’s why my toys are called collectibles that are supposed to stay at home and just look pretty for my enjoyment, LOL!

Oh well, I might as well forget this thought and just go on my long overdue holiday without any toys.  Maybe I’ll buy a new toy in Hong Kong and take photos of it there.  That would be a good alternative!

I’ll be taking my first overseas vacation of the year from 25-29 July 2010 and my destination shall be Hong Kong! 

I look forward to visiting their iconic tourist attractions like Disneyland, Ocean Park and Lantau Island; plus 1 and a half days of free and easy! 

I’ve scheduled some more short toy collecting tips to be posted daily on my blog while I’m away.  Now I need to go start packing for my upcoming mid-year trip!

Transformers HFTD Deluxe action figures - wave 1 - SGD 27.90 each

(Battle Blades Bumblebee, Ironhide, Jetblade & Sea Attack Ravage)

Transformers Generations Deluxe action figures - wave 1 - SGD 27.90 each

(War for Cybertron aka WFC: Autobot Drift, Bumblebee, Thrust & Optimus Prime)

If you have been holding out on the above toys till now and are satisfied with a 20% discount, you can head down to the store to get them from now till this Sunday.  Happy Transformers toys shopping!

This info is mainly for the Star Wars fans who are into 3.75-inch “The Vintage Collection” figures!  Take a look at the full online banner advertisement on the OG website for more details, like what will be on offer and what exclusives and attractive prizes to look forward to.

According to the OG staff, this will be a special 2 hours morning sale and the Star Wars toys offered here will be exclusive to OG only.  Well actually I’m not sure if it’s just the Boba Fett figure that will be exclusive, since he’s not for sale but is meant as a special redemption figure for this occasion only.

The main sale will start at 8am and will take place at the ground floor of OG Orchard upon entering through the main doors.  A second section for the Star Wars morning sale will take place at the foot of the escalators that lead up to the next floor.  For regulars customers to this departmental store, they will know where I’m referring to.

Only these 2 specially condoned areas of the entire store will be opened for the sale and the Star Wars customers.  After 10am on that day, the second sale section might be shifted upstairs to the toy department so as to make way for the regular operations of the store, when general customers start to stream in.

Early Bird Specials - If you look at the link to the OG website, they also mention that the first 150 people in the queue will receive a SGD 15.00 voucher to be used on the same day, for minimum purchase of SGD 40.00 worth of participating Hasbro Star Wars items.

Lucky Draw - If you intend to participate in their lucky draw for the top 2 prizes of exclusive FX Lightsabers (worth SGD 249.90 each), your lucky draw entries must be submitted by 10am that day.  Once again, you may refer to their full online banner advertisement on the OG website for more details.  Happy Star Wars toys shopping!

This part 2 blog post on the toy review of LEGO Kingdoms 2010 - King’s Castle set (7946) continues from yesterday’s posting on the same topic.  The following are the rest of the photos about the features and details of this castle set:

Stable – The interior of the front round towers is spacious enough for the king’s horse to fit inside very nicely!  The similar stable space on the other side can be used for the steed of the brave lion knight, who went out to rescue the princess from the dragon knights’ prison tower (7947)!

Portcullis mechanism – There are flat bricks attached to the back of the portcullis.  Pushing in that lever with the red tip will ‘lock’ the portcullis at the desired height.

Portcullis mechanism – There are 3 sets of brown axles along that long horizontal portcullis rod.  The soldiers work very hard to turn the 2 side axles so that the middle axle can ‘catch’ those flat bricks on the back of the portcullis with its ‘teeth’.  This facilitates the up and down movement of the portcullis.

Prison and guard duties – There is a small prison at the back wall.  The photo also shows a catapult defense machine on a front tower.  That lone soldier is in charge of guarding the entire side wall and that door to the treasure room in the rear tower.  If needed, he also has to run to the front tower to man the catapult, and he’s also the one to open and close the portcullis by helping to the turn the side axles (see previous photo).

This castle is very short handed.  The 2 bowmen can’t come down from the tall towers to help, so the 2 soldiers have to do most of the work.  They also have to saddle up the king’s horse, clean his armor, muck out the stables and groom his horse.  Wah, they are terribly overworked!

One of the soldiers tripping over at the drawbridge while rushing out to greet the returning king and to take his horse back to the stable.  That was a very poor design there.  The soldier had to take a day’s MC after that for a twisted ankle.  Can you twist an ankle from tripping!?  I think he’s finding an excuse to rest!

Armor storage inside the left side wall – Doesn’t this part remind you of the 6041 Armor Shop set from 1986?

The other storage area inside the right side wall – There is a backpack basket containing a few pieces of square 1×1 yellow color smooth top flat bricks.  I wonder if those are meant to be cheese or whatever?

A flight of stairs lead to the upper level of the rear wall.

Rear tower 1 catapult – This bowman keeps watch over the entire rear wall and mans the large catapult too.  The other bowman stands on top of the main front tower where the drawbridge and portcullis are.

Rear tower room 1 – front view.  The door opens to a room with no wall at the back.

Oops, a large rat just ran past!  Let’s hope that it’s not a disease carrier!

Rear tower room 1 – back view.  I guess this makes it easier for the owner to play with the minifigs moving about in the rear tower.  I plan to add walls here.

Throne room in rear tower 2 – The king’s throne looks good and when seated here, he looks out towards the back of the castle.  If he’s not careful, he might have a fatal fall all the way down.  I hope he doesn’t have very young children!

Treasure room in rear tower 2 – The security here leaves much to be said.  The bowman on top of rear tower 1 is supposed to watch over this part of the castle and use his crossbow to shoot at thieves and intruders, if any.

Treasure theft at rear tower 2 – Enough said about this.  I think this kind of burglary can take place at night.  No wonder the castle is filled with fire torches all over the place.  This castle has the most number of “lights”, except for along the rear wall!

Prison breakout – A very strong dragon knight removing the entire back section of the prison wall with only ONE hand!  My goodness, what have these dragon knights been eating?  Or do they have superhuman strength from drinking magic potions given by the green wizard?

Pointed roof of rear tower 2 – Just in case you wish to know, it’s made of solid bricks inside, hence there’s no attic under the roof.  Wasted space that could have been useful, too bad.

Instructions manual suggestions – As the various wall and tower sections of the castle can be detached, it gives versatility in arranging the castle architecture.  The instructions manual provide some examples to follow.

Spare and unused parts – I didn’t pose the king in his cape because wearing it will hinder him on horseback.  The white bricks are to ‘fill’ the horse’s body when it’s not saddled.

My “building” experience:  This set took me around 2 hours to assemble it.  Overall it‘s not as fun to build as my vintage castles.  Maybe because I was fuming over the missing part, and that I feel more attached to those vintage childhood castles, while I’m already an adult when this set came along.

Overall this is quite a decent castle set to own. It has lots of play areas, though it’s also severely understaffed.  There is 1 king, only 4 lion soldiers, 1 dragon Knight, 2 dragon soldiers, 1 white horse with exclusive royal barding, weapons & accessories, and some new and rare parts (mentioned earlier above).

Minus 1 point for the missing king’s armor. I will restore this point if LEGO replaces it for me FOC.

Minus ½ point for too few lion soldiers. I’ll rather swop the 2 dragon soldiers for 2 more lion soldiers.  The dragon knight can be a prisoner of the castle held for ransom.  A lion knight with the new bucket helmet could have been included, together with another horse (with normal saddle is fine).

Minus ½ point for ‘incomplete’ rear tower walls design.

Minus ½ point for too much red color at the front of the castle, and too little red at the back.  The sticker drawings are very cartoonish, making the set look like Duplo for toddlers.

Minus ½ point for bricks that detach too easily.  It makes the set easy to dismantle but the castle walls break apart too easily when I just want to shift the set around for multi-angled photo shots.  This annoyed me.

Score: 7/10.

Should you buy it? Well it depends on when you started collecting LEGO castles.  If your collection started from the Fantasy Era series where the armor and helmets are shiny silver, then a Kingdoms castle fits in well with your collection.

If you are mainly a vintage LEGO castles collector, this overly red color set will look out of place.  If you collect for the minifigs only, then I suggest you buy them loose when the Kingdoms line is more established.

Do I regret buying this set?  Well not really, since I got it at discount. I tend to feel most excited about toys that I don’t have yet.  After I get them and like them for about a week, the interest dies down and they get stored aside.  Then I find newer toys to covet and start the vicious cycle all over.  Sometimes I wonder what’s the purpose of collecting so many toys to clutter up my home?

Oh well, that’s my life.  Final suggestion for those who plan to get this set, buy it at no lesser than a 20% discount.  And please open up your sets to check the contents if any parts are missing or faulty.  Don’t wait till many years later when LEGO Singapore doesn’t have the parts anymore to replace for you!

Thanks for viewing!