I export some ponies from my personal My Little Pony collection to overseas collectors and the Ziploc bag has become a must-have packing material.  Although it adds to my costs but it gives the recipient a better impression.  I am sure every toy collector, regardless of what toy they collect, is very familiar with the use of the Ziploc bag in their hobby that it almost becomes ‘invisible’ to them.  

Since the beginning of my toy collecting hobby many years ago, I had observed the widespread use of Ziploc bags to pack in loose collectible toys like action figures, My Little Pony etc.  I do not know which genius came up with this great idea, whether it was thought up by a local or an overseas collector.  Nevertheless, I believe that the existence of the Ziploc bag sort of ‘revolutionalized’ the toy collecting hobby.

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Currently I have been experiencing a toy ‘drought’ where I have no new toys to look forward to, and the stores are filled with new stock that I have no interest in.  Hence I am focusing more on my work and studies now.  I also turned my attention to brainstorm some ideas on how to ‘refurbish’ this website and blog.  I do have a few ideas here and there but I will need to come up with more concrete plans before taking any actions.  Meanwhile, my website and blog remains as it is… 

Over the past decade of collecting toys, I accumulated so many different types of toys in all shapes, sizes, materials and themes.  During my early days of toy collecting, I used to keep a record of my main collectible toys and their cost prices.  However, I did not record the acquisitions of ‘minor’ toys like the small ad-hoc Pokemon figurines that I picked up from the flea market; or the Japanese anime toys from the coin machines etc.  ‘Minor’ or ‘miscellaneous’ toys are those that you do not specifically collect but you bought them on impulse anyway because they looked cute, cool or were very popular then.

Somehow the populations of these little ‘minor’ toys snowballed without me realising much of their existence in my collections.  Most were bought as impulse items and were subsequently stashed aside in whatever corner or space that I could find to accommodate them.  I finally started doing  an ‘inventory check’ on my toy collections last year to determine the toys to ‘let go’ to other toy collectors.  During the process, many of these ‘miscellaneous’ toys popped up literally everywhere.  They were mostly the result of my early years of toy collecting, at the ‘Rapid Growth’ stage. 

Currently the chances of me buying ‘impulse’ toys is much lower because of my ‘Play’ account.  Hence if you are a toy collector or you are going to become one, I highly recommend that you keep a ‘Play’ account for your toy expenditures to avoid ending up with too many ‘miscellaneous’ toys in your collections.  They take up precious space and most of the time, you do not have the same passion for them, as compared to the passion you have for the main collectible toys in your collection.

Also read all posts under Money Matters, and The 5 Toy Collecting Stages.

I brought out some of my She-Ra horses today and found that some of their plastic wings had turned ’sticky’.  Apparently, a layer of ’sticky and oily’ substance had formed on the surface of the wings.  I rubbed some handwash lotion on the plastic wings and then rinsed it off under running water.  After drying, the wings improved a lot and are no longer as ’sticky and oily’ as before.  With a few more rounds of similar washing, the wings should feel as good as new!  I have also applied this cleaning method on some of my action figure toys that had developed this same condition on their surface.  So far, all of them turned out much better after the washing! 

Times flies by very quickly.  This website is already over 3 months old.  As I am still new to using Wordpress and writing blogs etc., I experimented with the different widgets and scripts which I learnt from other similar websites and blogs.  As such, the result is what you see here today.  I have always wanted to use a more striking header picture but I have not managed to design a satisfactory one yet.  Now I feel that it is time for some more better changes to the website, hence do not be surprised to see ongoing new additions included here in the coming months!

I find Toy and Cartoon Videos Central very addictive.  It is fun to explore and view the numerous videos there, but many hours may be spent there too.  I ended up a little behind my work schedule yesterday because I was so hooked on viewing the many videos of gorgeous Lamborghinis there.  Once a person gets into an ‘addicted’ mode, such as playing video games or in this case, viewing online videos; the emotions can be rather difficult to manage at that point in time.  Hence, if you decide to click on Toy and Cartoon Videos Central, be mentally prepared to ‘tear’ yourself away from there when you feel that ‘time’s up’.  Do not say I did not ‘warn’ you…!

Over the years, some of my ponies developed patches of ‘mould’ on their rubbery plastic bodies.  Although I kept my ponies in closed cupboards, the local hot and humid climate still caused ‘mould growth’ on some ponies. 

A tip for quick and easy cleaning of My Little Pony toys is to use wet tissue (or wet wipes) to wipe off the ‘mould’ and other superficial dirt from their bodies.  In this way, I need not use water and end up getting their hair wet, and then having to take a longer time to dry off the pony and its hair. 

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I made a quick and short trip to Orchard Road today and there were no new toys that I collect being sold in the stores.  That was a relief and I can save my ‘Play’ funds for other fun things that I have in mind to spurge on!

It had been a busy and crazy weekend for me that ended with late nights over 4 consecutive days.  Now that it is finally over, I took a rest today before I resume my work and daily blogging tomorrow.  I missed my weekly weekend shopping trip to Orchard Road and I look forward to going there next weekend to catch up on the latest toy offerings in the stores!

I believe that successful people do not feel overwhelmed easily, not especially by new knowledge that could possibly make them even more successful.  I recall that the Wealth Seminar which I attended 3 months ago, taught us that “overwhelming things” will remain as “overwhelming things”.  To cope with them, we must to ‘grow’ ourselves to become even ‘bigger’ than those so called “overwhelming things”.  By then, the “overwhelming things” will turn into “little things” in our eyes, simply because we have equipped ourselves with the necessary skills to deal with them more ‘comfortably’. 

Hence whenever we learn something new, the beginning of the learning curve will always seem very steep.  Once you persevere and go beyond a certain point up the curve, you will find that the gradient is not so steep anymore.  In fact, the curve will gradually become almost ‘flat’ at the end.  The picture that comes to mind is like a person climbing a hill.  It takes more effort near the base of the hill because the slope is so steep, hence he or she needs to exert more effort than usual to scale the hill.  Making more effort ’stretches’ us to move bit by bit out of our comfort zones.  Along the way, our muscles develop and our staminas increase and scaling up the hill will gradually become easier when the ‘flatter’ grounds up the hill are reached.

I now have a stable of ‘ponies’ waiting to for my attention and to be trained.  Experts say that in theory, we should train only one pony at a time.  However in most real stables, all the ponies take their turns each day to be trained in mini lessons.  This keeps them interested and occupied so they do not become bored and lethargic.  The many parts of my brain who had learnt and stored the various topics, will gradually forget them if I do not activate their respective neuro-connections often enough.  Therefore, all my ponies will be allocated a timetable for their daily and weekly training sessions.  This will keep them in peak conditions at all times and they can be ridden anytime they are needed!