After test watching my newly acquired Mulan DVD this week, I suddenly recall that I do have some Mulan toys stashed in a box somewhere in my cupboard.  I just found that box and it contains not just the official Disney Mulan action figures that I bought in the late 90’s, but also the complete set of promotional Mulan toys from McDonalds!

Here’s my complete collection of all the 8 Mulan toys from McDonalds.  You can imagine the amount of McDonalds’ Happy Meals I had to eat up just to get all these toys!  At least the McDonalds toys in the late 90’s resemble the movie characters very closely, not like some of those I see today. 

I have 2 Mulan figures so that I can display both versions of her at the same time.  The Mulan figure is also designed to ride on her horse, Khan!  Although most of the animal characters are not to scale, the main characters in movie are well represented here.

I shall blog about my other Mulan toys collection in my next post tomorrow, after I’ve taken their photos!  Come back again tomorrow to view them!

The latest DVD I acquired for my DVD collection is Disney’s “Mulan”.  I remember watching it twice at the cinemas when it was being shown here in the late 90’s.  Since then I have caught it off and on whenever it’s shown on Disney Channel. 

I have test-watched my Mulan DVD and I still enjoy the show very much.  The movie just makes me laugh at the humour from the beginning to the end!  I really marvel at the creativity of the production team at Disney.  They also managed to retain the main essence of the original Mulan ballad despite changing the story a little. 

I’m also pleased with the bonus DVD features on the 2nd disc.  They contain the behind the scenes of research, designs, art and music during the 5-year production of Mulan.  There are some music videos of the songs in Mandarin, Cantonese and foreign languages like Spanish too!

Mulan After thoughts:

An observation I have made is that Mulan does not seem to be a well remembered Disney movie in Singapore, although my friends who have watched it agree it was very enjoyable to watch.  Of all the Disney merchandise sold in the stores here, Mulan toys are amongst the most obscure.  The popular Disney toys available everywhere are either the typical cute ones like Winnie the Pooh and Stitch, or those beautifully dressed-up Disney Princesses from the fairy tale Disney movies. 

It shows that girls will always tend to like things for their cuteness, beauty and other outer appearances.  I guess I’m pretty ‘abnormal’ like Disney’s Mulan is in her movie.  Although I have a sizeable My Little Pony collection (it’s mainly because I love horses), about half of my entire toys collection actually consists of action figures which are based on some action comics or shows that are orginally targeted at guys!

I do like some amount of romance stuff and pretty things, but I also enjoy entertainment that has some fighting action, like martial arts, superhero powers etc.  So what does that make me?  A kind of “geek” or something?  Oh gosh, I hate that word!

Today is one of those very rare days where I woke up not knowing what date or which day of the week it is.  My mind seemed to have just gone ‘blank’ all of a sudden.  Although I read the morning newspapers, I forgot to take note of today’s date. 

When I started work, I stared at my table calendar and I just couldn’t figure out which day of the week it is today, much less the date.  And I don’t have the habit of crossing out the dates that have passed on my table calendar. 

I looked at my laptop date and it shows “Wednesday”.  But somehow I needed a second opinion and I finally checked my mobile phone.  It’s actually Thursday today!  My laptop date and time have been set to the US Eastern Time, no wonder!  It’s still the previous day over there before 12noon Singapore time. 

You must be wondering why I didn’t check my mobile phone first.  Well my mind just went ‘blank’ the moment I woke up this morning.  It’s like suddenly having amnesia and it’s a really scary feeling.  Am I feeling too stressed or what?  Luckily I ‘returned’ to the correct date and time period by mid-morning.  I’ll never want to have this weird out-of-this -world feeling again!

• Ready for adventure!
• Dressed for a night of fun!
• Super-young and cute! 

These little pony theme packs make sure your pony pals are ready for anything!  This case of 3 individually packaged ponies includes:

1x Scootaloo Birthday Set
2x Starsong Playtime Set

(Subject to change)” 

Shipping is expected around June 2009!

Amidst the hype about Dragonball Evolution movie showing in the cinemas now, I finally went to watch it last night.  I didn’t have high expectations of the movie prior to seeing it but since I’m not a fan, I thought I’d just treat it as a ’stand alone’ movie and enjoy it as it is. 

After watching it, I find that the movie wanted squeeze too much info into just 90min of film time.  The editing wasn’t that well done, hence the scenes and plot did not flow along smoothly during the movie.  I guess this is what happens when you attempt to compress a long running comics series into just 1 and 1/2 hours.  OVerall, it strikes me as a kids’ movie, more than a movie for older fans and viewers.

Anyway, the Dragonball movie has its own series of Dragonball Evolution movie action figures by Bandai.  Online pre-orders are available now and shipping is expected sometime in April 2009.  The preview photos of all the movie toys can be seen here (note: just refresh the link if the page does not load).  Despite the movie showing here already, I have not seen its toys selling in Singapore yet. 

The above photo shows the main character of the Dragonball Evolution movie, Goku (in his trademark orange costume).  I’d expect this figure to ‘fly’ off the shelves soon after being released in the departmental stores.  There are 7 figures in the 5-inch action figures set and they each come with 1 of the 7 Dragonballs, and a piece to form Oozaru.  Quite a smart move to make people buy all 7 figures!

The below YouTube video clip is taken from Dreamworks’ 2002 animated movie, “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron“.  It’s one of my all-time favourite animated feature films and this is also amongst the DVDs that I bought and test watched recently. 

The story is about the adventures of a young wild stallion living on the plains of old west - about his initial capture by the western calvary and later his escape from them; his friendship with a teenage native American brave; his romance with the brave’s lovely mare, and his determination to return to his home in the wild.

While watching the following scenes and listening to the accompanying soundtrack during the movie, I couldn’t helped feeling somehow I’m at a similar down point at this stage of my life.  The song is very inspiring and I do listen to it at times on YouTube. 

Here it is, with the actual scenes from the movie.  This part is where the wild stallion almost gives up his fight to escape from his human captors.  He is on a train and being transported to a place far, far away from his homeland…

Sound The Bugle lyrics (sung by Bryan Adams):

Sound the bugle now, play it just for me
As the seasons change, remember how I used to be
Now I can’t go on, I can’t even start
I’ve got nothing left, just an empty heart

I’m a soldier, wounded so I must give up the fight
There’s nothing more for me, lead me away
Or leave me lying here…

Sound the bugle now, tell them I don’t care
There’s not a road I know, that leads to anywhere
Without a light I fear that I will, stumble in the dark
Lay right down, decide not to go on

Then from on high, somewhere in the distance
There’s a voice that calls, remember who you are
If you lose yourself, your courage soon will follow

So be strong tonight, remember who you are
Ya you’re a soldier now, fighting in a battle
To be free once more, ya that’s worth fighting for 

I’m almost done test-watching all my latest DVD haul from the various DVD sales island wide.  I still have 1 more DVD to test-watch and it’s a long one.  These DVDs are all my prized possesions as they contain some of my most favourite movies, cartoons, drama series that I’ve seen before. 

Most of these DVDs cost me less than SGD 10.00 each, even for original imports from the US!  My only gripe is that some of them come in widescreen format, which I’m not so fond of because I’m still using a regular non-flatscreen TV at home.  There are no plans to upgrade my TV till it finally konks out on its own.

I enjoyed these shows very much when I first watched them so many years ago.  After seeing the same shows on DVD format, my postive first impressions that I had of them back then are still very much unchanged.  Some of the cartoons especially remind me that I also own their respective toys, which I plan to take out from storage soon and photograph them!

Well I defintely have no regrets buying their DVDs!  Hopefully the rest of my favourite shows will show up in the market soon in DVD formats, so that I can finally replace my drawers of video tapes, which I used to record my favourite shows off the TV.  Many of the video tapes are getting mouldy from the humid weather.  Even though I have the machine to clean them, they still get mouldy again from lack of ‘exercise’!

While window shopping at a departmental store recently, I came across these Dragonball Z action figures (by Bandai) selling for SGD 6.95 each!  I think this is a quite good price for these 5-inch action figures.  They don’t come with weapons or accessories though.  With the highly hyped up Dragonball Evolution movie showing in the local cinemas now, I do notice a surge of Dragonball related toys and other merchandise for sale to cash in on the current fad.

There are 11 different characters in this Dragonball Z action figures series and they are mostly variations of the main character SonGokou and another guy called Veggeto.  There is a Piccolo the main villain, and a Freeza (I have no idea who this is as I’m not a Dragonball fan) in this series.  Piccolo is the largest and heaviest figure in this set.  As the figures all cost the same, that makes Piccolo most worth your money to buy!

I looked over all the figures and found them to be quite well-made.  Hence I finally couldn’t resist the temptation and bought this piece known as Super Saiyan SonGokou.  I chose him because he looks so cool in his spiky blond hairstyle and his bright orange costume.  It’s like one look you know he’s a Dragonball character.  Haha…!!

SonGokou’s Packaging:

The packaging design is also very toy removal friendly.  The plastic bubble is secured to the backcard with tape and you just need to use a penknife to slice the tape, and you can then slide out the backcard easily from the plastic bubble. 

There are 2 layers of plastic bubble but the toy is super easy to take out because there are no irritating wires tying him to the plastic bubble, unlike those pesky Hasbro toy packaging that leave you exhausted by the time you have undone the wires!  You can also put SonGokou back in his packaging easily if you want.

SonGokou’s Description:

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My New York City (NYC) Twice As Fancy (TAF) Project Pony arrived and here she is still mint-in-package (MIP).  I counted 22 random little symbols all over her body and they had no particular theme.  Hence I call this pony “Random”.  This name reminds me of an X-Men character from the X-Factor team, hehe…

Pony’s Description:

There are 10 symbols on the right side of Random’s body and they are a balloon, paintbrush, safety pin, umbrella, ladybug, fishbone, hamburger, gas station, dollar sign and briefs (!?).  Very ‘random’ symbols with no connection to one another right?

Read more »

I received a leaflet from my recent DVD purchases and found that there is going to be a DVD bazaar sale this weekend.  I might pop by to check out what’s available and hopefully, there are great deals at below SGD 10.00 to be found there!  If you are interested to go, the DVD Bazaar Sale details on the leaflet are as follows:

Organisers: Laserflair & MJ Multimedia

Dates: 13-15 March 2009

Time: 10am to 9pm

Venue: Safra Toa Payoh Club, Multi-Purpose Hall at 293 Lorong 6, Toa Payoh

MRT: Toa Payoh MRT Station (approx 10min walk or take a bus from interchange)

Bus: 8, 26, 31, 90, 142, 57, 59, 238, 506 (to Toa Payoh Stadium)

Car: PIE Exit 16A to Kim Keat Link.  Parking available at venue.

Leaflet description: “Grab the best deal in town!  Movies, TV series, Cartoons, Music CDs & many more!  Spend SGD 100.00* & get a sure win lucky dip!  Free door gifts for the 1st 100 Safra members*!”

* Terms & conditions apply.