I am watching Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon, again!

I watched DOTM in IMAX 3D on 29 June 2011.

I'm watching it again with E in 1.5 hours' time.

I didn't like it that much the first time round, but I am looking forward to it this time because I will be watching it with E.

(I'm also looking forward to the popcorn at this Cinema!)

~ HD

HK Market Watch - C-328: Victory Saber giftset and D-307: Overlord

Market Watch update to my 26 June 2011 Market Watch article.

I went to my usual G1 toy shop after the 玩具迷珍藏 Show (aka Toy Collectors' Show).

As usual, they didn't fail to disappoint. They have yet again managed to bring in more G1 goodies!!!

So what's new?

Notably:

• 01: Optimus Prime MIB
• C-324: Star Saber MIB (not sure of condition, didn't ask)
• C-328: Victory Saber giftset (very near C10 box, completely unused)
• D-307: Overlord MIB (also very near C10 box, completely unused)
• D-***, which I was so stoked to find and I bought (you won't see it in the photos!)

I looked at it and told E, "Oh my gosh, I must buy that!"

And buy it I did. More to be revealed later.

First, some photos of the 'new' glass display cabinets...

HK Market Watch - 玩具迷珍藏 Show (aka Toy Collectors' Show)

After all the excitement of the Wimbledon Men's Semi-Finals last night, E and I actually managed to wake up quite early today.

I broached the subject of maybe going to the 玩具迷珍藏 Show (aka Toy Collectors' Show) in HK that I saw a poster on a few days back.

Poster

Never heard of it before. No idea what it is. No idea what to expect.

But I thought, worth a shot since its one of the rare occasions where we are both free and do not have to do work over the weekend.

It was at a far-away place and involves changing trains twice and then switching over to a shuttle-bus before we could get there.

Right at the entrance of the place, E said to me: "Before we go in, you must moderate your expectations. Don't expect too much, if not you might be disappointed."

Words to live by. Heh.

So in I went....

Lots of DOTM stuff

There was actually a room full of sellers from Japan (they were all speaking Japanese)

I really did not see much of interest. I'm pretty sure this was because people got in early and have already cleaned out all the good stuff. I see lots of people walking around with things in bags that I know I would have bought. For example, this guy picked all a huge lot of loose Henkeis (complete with backing card and everything except each toy's bubble) from this shop, which I know would have been cheap judging by the other pieces at the shop. Notably, Ironhide and Ratchet were in the lot.

I did, however, manage to pick up 2 things and E picked up one thing.

E's acquisition first - very interesting set of stackable pigs (there were other designs, but I agreed with E that this was the most interesting!)

My first pick up - MOSC Terradive (pretty sweet condition)

My second pick up. This just blew me away and made the entire trip more than worthwhile.

I picked up a complete set of Japanese exclusive Suntory Coffee "BOSS Transformers", all sealed, unused and at bargain basement prices.

No idea what these are? I didn't either, until I saw Bermuda Mohawk's site which talks about them in detail. Check it out here - Transformers BOSS - Original G1 Figures

Won't go into them in too much detail here, but the inside looks like this:

Took a wander around Telford Plaza after all the excitement and bumped into a life sized Iron-Man!

... and a very nice Marvel Heros backdrop...

This shop also sells Transformer goodies...

Then, as if all that excitement was not enough, E suggested that we should go to Mong Kok for a toy raid. I said 'why not!' of course.

So we went and there, found something that tops the entire day off... (wait for next post, since this one is getting too long). Heh

~ HD

Next: A visit to Yau Ma Tei/ Mong Kok after the toy fair.

Thursday night shopping...

Tomorrow is a public holiday here in HK.

Decided to do some shopping after work today. Went to the Causeway Bay comic shops... I needed my dose of Superman/Batman, its been too long.

Managed to pick up some very nice things...

1. Superman/Batman: Big Noise
2. Superman/Batman: Worship
3. Transformers: Vault (slipcase edition)
4. Diamond Select Juggernaut figure

Man, I just love the Juggernaut design. Liked this guy ever since I read Amazing Spider-Man #229 and #230 when I was young. They knew how to write stories back then.

I think this is more the size that Juggernaut should be. This figure is a lot bigger and taller and heavier than the Marvel Legends Juggernaut that E bought for me (here and here).

Close up shot.

I am watching Dark of the Moon in 3 hours

Ho hum.

I am watching Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon in 3-D IMAX in 3 hours' time.

That's a mouth full of 3s.

Ho hum.

HK Market Watch - C-114 and 2 pieces of C-311... Fortress Maximii

I wandered past my usual G1 toy shop today and what a shocker to see what they have in stock.

C-114: Fortress Maximus and 2 pieces of C-311: Grand Maximus, all looking like they are in at least C8  condition and very pristine (on the face of the boxes).

Man, this is crazy.

What is crazier is that the shop owner told me that the 2 pieces of C-311 are meant to be sold as a set, together! 

What? 

Nuts!

What's nuttier is that he's asking for only slightly above half of what these gems usually go for on eBay (and I'll bet the ones on eBay are in worse condition than these).

Since I already have multiple pieces of this mold, I wasn't too interested to look inside. But knowing the reputation of this shop, I'd expect that the contents are also top-notch.

There were other things like a MISB individual boxed Abomunis set, vintage Predaking giftset, Goodbye Megatron giftset, 2 sets of C-347, 348, 349 unused (ie: Big Powered), etc, etc.

PS: I know the shop-owner very well and did have permission to snap those pictures. =)

PPS: Before anyone asks, no, I will not pick up a Maximus for you. Reason is, its too large, I don't have space and I have no idea how to ship something this large overseas. Sorry.

The full story (Part 3) - So rare they ought to be extinct

Previous chapter - The full story (Part 2) - Diaclone CarRobots No.7: Fairlady Z "Bluestreak" blue

If you would recall from the previous chapter (link above), the deal for Marlboor Wheeljack was worked out on 28/29 May 2011, with payment made from the buyer to me on 29 May 2011.

I said that I got cash and value out of the deal - the value of course, coming in the form of the blue Bluestreak. 

I actually got more value than that.

Due some silly circumstances, there was actually a ridiculous situation going on in the background - at these crucial few days in time, I actually needed the substantial amount of cash from the Marlboor deal to pay for another deal that I negotiated(!)

Rewind:

• 19 April 2011 - I thought I was being scammed on PayPal because they suddenly gave me $15 free. I took the precaution of changing my password and delinking the one and only credit card I had on file with them (I don't see why I should have placed more than one credit card with them and put myself at further risk, by the by).
• 20 May 2011 (Sat) - Travelled to Osaka ad hoc to search for Dino-cassettes.
• 23 May 2011 (Mon) - This was my last day in Osaka. I used my credit card (same one I delinked from PayPal) for my final raid, buying such delicacies as Marlboor Wheeljack and God Primus.
• 25 May 2011 (Wed) - Due to the amounts spent in a day, in a foreign country, my bank thought I was being scammed or that there was fraudulent activity going on. So, they called me up and said that they have (unilaterally) cancelled my card and will reissue a new one to me, within a week. Negotiations re Marlboor Wheeljack starts today.
• 26 May 2011 (Thurs) - Night - after about 2+ days of negotiation, I finally worked out a deal for the 4 dino-cassettes with a UK seller (he was selling on eBay, individually and I had to convince him that it was a good idea to sell to me and to list them in the 1 auction for me to buy-it-now; it wasn't easy, trust me). I needed to pay. The amount is in the thousands of dollars range. I didn't have enough cash in PayPal and needed to draw on my credit card which would ordinarily be fine, but for the fact that in my infinite wisdom I have delinked about a month ago and to add insult to injury was now also cancelled by the bank.
• 27 May 2011 (Friday) - Because of the how risk adverse I am, I only have one credit card, that's it (so sue me). It's now cancelled and I don't have any other credit card to link it to PayPal. Spent the whole morning in discussions with E and against my preference, she said I should use her credit card(s) to link to PayPal and pay. So, fine, linked her credit cards to PayPal. BUT, PayPal has this verification process where they charge the card and then you verify by keying in the code from the charge. Sounds easy? NO! E had to fly off on that day, late afternoon for an all weekend conference overseas - ie: there is no way for me to get the code from her over the next 2 days once she flies off. The clock was ticking. Somehow, I needed to pay and soon.
• 28 May 2011 (Sat) - It was now the weekend. Can't even get the bank to help me with the credit card issues. I concluded the Marlboor negotiations deep into the morning today (ie: 4am on Sunday morning). Buyer wanted to pay to secure Marlboor, but I was just too tired to the point of falling asleep on my computer chair. I could not properly generate an invoice for him to pay.
• 29 May 2011 (Sun) - I am now almost 4 days out from the time I should have paid for the 4 dino-cassettes. I had errands to run and was out of the apartment from morning till about 4pm - ie: no chance to do an invoice for Marlboor Wheeljack. Finally managed to do the invoice in the evening and then cross fingers that the buyer would pay soon because I promised the UK seller that I would pay for the dino-cassettes latest by Monday (and I have great fears that he might just sell them to someone else). Seriously stressful.
• 30 May 2011 (Mon) - Marlboor buyer paid early in the morning. I then quickly paid for the dino-cassettes and breathed a sign of relieve.

It was a damn circus.

But, like I said, I did get more value out of the Marlboor deal and the buyer's timely payment than just the blue Bluestreak.

While I paid on 30 May, the dino-cassette seller did not manage to ship them out all the way till 4 June 2011. That's a week delay, but that's fine.

He shipped express from UK, so I was told to expect them around 7 June 2011 (Tues). The tracking records did disclose that they have arrived in HK on 7 June, but somehow, they got stuck in customs (for no apparent reason) and did not get delivered to me (at my office).

On 10 June 2011 (Fri), they were still not delivered. I was very concerned. I actually called up HK Post and submitted an email query to check what was happening. This was the first time ever in my 12 years of collecting that I have been this worried about a figure in transit - all of the other times, I won't even bother keying in the tracking number to verify progress. I just took a "it will get here when it gets here" approach.

This was different. I was worried.

Friday, 10 June 2011, still no delivery. 

13 June 2011, Monday morning - I got a call from HK Post to say that they tried to deliver the parcel on Saturday, but there was no one at the office to receive it (office not open on Saturdays), and they will 'try' to deliver it again on that day.

I was just in a tangle by this point.

Fortunately, in mid afternoon, reception called to ask me to sign for the parcel.

Whew. What a roller-coastal ride. It's a very strange set of events. On the one hand, it seemed that the stars favoured me, but on the other hand, there seems to be an equal and opposite force that was working to make things difficult.

So glad that I finally managed to obtain my 4 little holy grails (and really just in the nick of time before the damnable KOs are released, after which I would never dare to buy these for fear of them being KOs.)

Here are some photos.

More photos and write ups of the dino-cassettes to follow of course.

But wait, during Part 2, I said "6 exquisite acquisitions". The dino-cassettes only make up 4. Where are the other 2?

Well, there is going to be a Part 4 to the story....

***

The "full story" chapters:

• The full story (Part 1) - Diaclone CarRobots No.18: Lancia Stratos Turbo,  Marlboor (Marlboro) Wheeljack
• The full story (Part 2) - Diaclone CarRobots No.7: Fairlady Z "Bluestreak" blue
• The full story (Part 3) - so rare they ought to be extinct (aka the dino-cassettes)
• The full story (Part 4) - the Autobot Communicators
• The full story (Part 5) - Guard City (TF-04) and Battle Gaia (TF-10) giftsets
• The full story - Epilogue