Looking back at my toy collecting habits in 2008, I have definitely scaled down significantly in my toy purchases.  This was mostly thanks to my setting up of a monthly ‘Play funds’ to keep my toy expenditures within a budget.  Hence I managed to keep my toy population in check, and also because I’m facing space constraints at home. 

It was a vast improvement compared to the years before, when I had more purchasing power then and near-complete disregard for suitable space at home.  I just bought first and decided later on how to store the toys when I reached home.  Yeah when we were much younger, we tend to do all sorts of ’silly’ things like this.

In a way, it was a bit irresponsible of me back then but I was much younger and didn’t want to think so much.  I felt happy that I could afford it then.  Anyway I’m sure everyone goes through this stage in life.  The main difference is on what items were purchased.  For some, it was branded goods.  For me it was mainly collectible toys.

No doubt I still bought new collectible toys in 2008, but at least I also sold off other earlier toys during year.  So there were in’s and out’s to maintain an overall balance and have sufficient storage space for my entire toys collection. 

So what’s up for my toy collecting in 2009?  Well, I’ll further reduce the using of my monthly ‘Play funds’ and roll over more savings to the subsequent months and so forth.  After all the financial experts out there had been advising for the past months and for the coming 2009 that “Cash is King!”.

The year 2008 marked 3 important events in my toy hobby.

Juliana’s Collections was set up

Yup, that pretty much sums it up.  It’s just a start and I still have a long way to go.  Now that 2008 is nearly over, much of 2009 will be devoted to this project and to bring it to the next levels.  It will go hand in hand with my toys website: ToyzToSell.com.

My Toy Website Gets A New Look

ToyzToSell.com had undergone many design and color changes since it started in August 2007.  As I was new to website building and had very limited funds then, I had to set up everything myself, from domain name registration, web hosting, website design, writing, photo-taking, customer service, accounts and delivery etc.

In 2008, the website matters had stabilized but there was something about the look of the website that needed to be improved.  I finally learnt to use Photoshop to make a simple header to use as a decent banner until I design something much better.  I also spent hours exploring the various color combinations before settling for this current look.

My Mini “Toy Shop” at Toy Outpost

In October 2008, Simply Toys opened Toy Outpost at Plaza Singapura (7th floor) where they resumed the locker rental service to merchants who could rent locker-styled shelf space from them to sell their own stuff, like toys etc.  I used to rent a locker from their ex-Far East Plaza outlet some years ago to sell my excess toys and it was quite successful. 

Hence I rented lockers from them once more to sell off a large part of My Little Pony collection that I’m downsizing.  The timing is just right as I now have another avenue to let go my toys to other people who want them.  Not everyone is comfortable buying from online stores so putting my stuff a brick and mortar shop for customers to view the actual toys in person before buying, is a good idea too.

Toy Plans for 2009

I shall continue to review the rest of my toys collection and sift out the older ones that I no longer cherish as much and to let them go to others who would love them more.  It’s a matter of re-organising the way I store them for easier management when I clear them off.  The newly created space will then be better utilised for the stuff that I plan to keep! 

Chinese New Year is just round the corner and that means my major spring cleaning for the year is coming soon.  It’s a good time to re-organise and re-pack the cupboards for a new look and better storage space usage!

Gosh it was ‘mentally exhausting’ doing this blog post.  I’m glad it’s almost done.  2009 is just round corner and I’ve still got more post left for 2008!

As 2008 comes to an end, it’s time to review my toy blog and toy hobby for the year.  I start with my toy blog which just turned 1 year old early this month.  Gosh, time really flies past very quickly!

Wordpress Matters

It is fun blogging about collecting toys and posting toy photos here to share with my readers.  I learnt more about using Wordpress and html codings to achieve my desired design results.  For e.g. I finally learnt to change the background colors of this blog from the default colors.  I also merged my 2 ex-blogs that I started in 2006 (TalkAboutCartoons.blogspot.com & TalkAboutToys.blogspot.com) to this one.   I take one step at a time and look forward to creating more design features for my blog.

Blog Directores and Stats Counters

I went to explore the various well-known blog directories like MyBlogLog, BlogCatalog, blog stats counters, RSS feeds and how to add them here.  I remember that I first found the link to Shaun’s blog from a blog directory and then from his blog, I got to know and link up to other toy blogs on my current Blogroll.

Blogrolls

This is the year where I got to know many other fellow toy bloggers here in Singapore.  I added an Action Figures Blogroll to link to their blogs and I’m very happy that they linked back to my blog too.  I enjoy visiting their toy blogs and reading their postings each day and I appreciate their visits and comments too. 

Blogging becomes much more fun when bloggers and readers get to interact and share views with one another.  It is also a fast way of knowing the latest happenings or observations in toy collecting and the toy industry.  In a way it also lets a toy collector know that there are many other like-minded people around, so there’s no need to feel ’shy’ that he or she is still collecting toys in adulthood

Inaugural Annual Toy Awards 2008

This is also the first year where I did my inaugural Annual Toy Awards for my toys collection.  It was inspired by Shaun’s blog postings in December on his list of Top 10 Favourite Toys of the Year.  He encouraged fellow toy bloggers to come up with our own lists or something similar for the year end to share with everyone.  Many of them did and for me, here is my list of winners for my 5 Toy Award Titles.

Blog Plans for 2009

I will continue to improve my blog and postings with more informative articles.  The layout or template might change as I plan to explore better ways to display the various links, photos, articles, videos etc.  Each day as I blog, I’m also learning new things about Wordpress and its technical aspects.  As I gain new experiences with time, I would use them to bring both my blog and toy website to the next levels!

That’s all for my toy blog review for 2008.  I’ll post the 2008 summary of my toy hobby tomorrow!

It was Boxing Day and I spotted this scenario while window shopping at a departmental store in Orchard Road.  Hence I took some photos for fun and also because I found this sighting hilarious!

Here we have some regular single pack My Little Pony figures selling at 20% discount during a departmental store sale on Boxing Day.  Everything looks normal and nothing seems amiss from afar.

Now let’s turn the pony boxes to the other sides where they have been tagged with their prices before the 20% discount.  The usual price for these single pack My Little Pony figures is SGD 9.90 each.  If there is a 20% discount, the sale price will be SGD 7.92. 

These are the closed up shots of the pony prices that I saw on their boxes.  Those are the most expensive regular and common single pack My Little Pony figures I have come across in the stores here.  I’m pretty sure the store personnel tagged the incorrect prices on them.  However I’m not that free to go ask the store to verify those prices.

Anyway, this toy observation provided some form of entertainment for me while I was there.  It was very crowded at the toy section of this departmental store (just like on a Sunday) and shoppers were jostling one another to seemingly buy toys but the queues weren’t that long.  Besides, school is re-opening soon for the kids.

If you had missed out on buying “The Legacy of Bumblebee” 3-pack box set from Carrefour at Plaza Singapura before Christmas, here’s another chance for you to grab a set for yourself at the same heavily discounted price of just SGD 29.90 per box (Usual Price: SGS 69.90).

I was at Carrefour (Suntec City) today and I saw all these stacked on the floor.  There must be at least a hundred boxes of ‘Bumblebee overload’ there.  As Christmas Day is over, I believe that these boxes of Bumblebees will there for a while longer than at Plaza Singapura during the pre-Christmas period. 

While I was there for around 5-10min, there were kids and shoppers who picked up a box to look at it but none of them bought any.  I guess the festive shopping mood is over for them and school is re-opening soon for the kids.  Hence it looks like those boxes of Bumblebees will more likely await the toy collectors to descend upon them!

It’s Boxing Day today and I went out to Orchard Road to check out the sales at the various departmental stores.  I had noticed this interesting “Beary” Christmas Tree at Takashimaya (a departmental store in Orchard Road) for a number of weeks already.  However I never got the chance to take a good photo without having other people blocking it.  I finally seized the opportunity today to take these 2 shots. 

Here we have the closed up view of the hundreds of little red, white and green teddy bears that made up the Christmas Tree.  If I’m not mistaken, I think all of these plush bears will be donated to charity after Christmas.  The above closed up photo of the teddy bears somehow reminds me of the Italian flag, that is if you rotate the photo 90 degrees to the right! 

My Top Favourite Toy Of The Year Award goes to:

San Diego Comic Convention (SDCC) 2008 Exclusive My Little Pony! (I call her Ninja Pony)

Comments: I realised that I devoted quite a few blog posts to this lovely super heroine pony.  Most pony collectors actually prefer last year’s SDCC Exclusive Pony but I don’t own that one yet.  I find the 2007 edition a little too fiery red in color for my liking though I don’t mind getting her too. 

Anyway back to my 2008 Ninja Pony, I like her color schemes and the comic book designs on her body.  Besides, there are very few ponies made in black.  These 2 photos were originally taken by me but someone used Photoshop to ‘cut out’ the pony shapes and used them on ebay to sell their own MIB SDCC 2008 Exclusive Ponies.  Well, this saves me the tedious effort in editing the photos myself!

And this also concludes my inaugural Annual Toy Awards 2008!  I hope to have the Toy Awards again next year, though my guess is that some of the Award titles might change or be replaced with other Award titles. 

Till then, here’s Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!

G3 My Little Pony - Ponyville!

Comments: I really didn’t expect to collect the Ponyville series as I found the ponies too small even though they look quite cute with their accessories (Ponyville ponies are just slightly smaller than the Transformers Legends figures).  In 2007, I had 9 Ponyville figures (above) of which 8 were Christmas gifts to me from fellow pony collectors.  I only bought Starsong the pegasus pony and her Popcorn Theatre set cos I wanted this pegasus character.

However during 2008, I caved in when Hasbro released the Ponyville Starsong’s Stage Show Bus set.  I also found the latest Ponyville 2-packs very attractive and they made me want to collect a full set of the core 7 My Little Pony characters.  And so the rest is history.

These are some of my Ponyville collection acquired in 2008 (above) while the rest of their accessories had been packed away.  I’m glad to say that I have stopped collecting Ponyville ponies for the moment, partly because there aren’t any newer ones in the departmental stores yet.  When that happens I’ll decide if I still want to collect the next series of Ponyville ponies, that have removable and inter-changeable mane wigs.

My Fastest Shrinking Toy Line Collection Of The Year Award goes to:

G1 My Little Pony! 

Close-up of the top left shelf.

Comments: They used to fill up 6 out of 8 shelves of this cupboard in my study hall.  A few months ago, I reorganized these ponies and they now fit into 4 shelves only.  The remaining shelves were ‘returned’ to my expanding books collection.  However I still have 2 more shelves and 2 drawers of  G1 ponies, plus a box of extra G1 ponies in my room.  Well at least I can see the difference in their numbers. 

Close-up of the lower left shelf.

I started selling off many of my excess 80’s G1 My Little Pony toys since last year and continued this year.  The G1 ponies sell off faster than the 90’s G2 or current G3 series.  G1 ponies have long been a traditional hot favourite among pony collectors.  In a way I’m glad that many of my ponies are going to other collectors who will love and care for them like I did.

Close-up of the top right shelf.

Generally I find that most 80’s toys were made of much better quality materials the later and current ones.  Some of my 80’s My Little Pony still look so mint like fresh out-of-package.  Their conditions can be so fantastic that it is hard to believe that some of these ponies are almost 30 years old already!  However many of the subsequent generation ones are more prone to discoloration and other plastic deterioration with age.  Must be due to cost cutting measures that caused the decline in their qualities.

Close-up of the lower right shelf.

Anyway, my G1 pony collection now consists of those pony characters that appeared in the 80’s cartoons, storybooks, magazines etc.  Those were the original and classic characters that held the most memorable childhood memories for me.  The rest I’m willing to let go to other pony collectors who will take good care of them for me!

My Fastest Expanding Toy Line Collection Of The Year Award goes to:

My 1:24 scale die-cast Lamborghini model cars collection! 

Comments: I had only 2 cars last year and by now I have 9 of them, including 1 yellow Murcielago Roadster (below) that I got for myself this Christmas.  I even had the Roadster gift wrapped by the store that I bought from, for the Christmas feeling and I’m going to open it on Christmas Day!

I also have 2 non-Lamborghinis: an Audi R8 (above) and an Aston Martin DB9 (below), all in 1:24 scale.  The latter has also been gift wrapped and is sitting under my Christmas tree.  It’s another gift to myself this Christmas!

To think that I managed to clear off prime drawer space when I sold off a large portion of my baby My Little Pony collection during the year, only to have it quickly filled up by just a few cars. 

I can’t explain why I love the Lamborghini car so much.  This supercar just appeals to me since I first took close notice of it last year and I now can’t stop collecting the 1:24 scale models.

Read my past Lamborghini blog posts here.

My next acquistion target is the1:24 scale Lamborghini Gallardo Polizia model (above) by Bburago, that is scheduled for release this year.  Gosh, it’s a never ending vicious toy collecting cycle!