Avatar Interactive Battle Pack Set

This is a follow up on my earlier blog post on “Avatar Toys Augmented Reality Demo“.  I’ve seen the above Avatar item on sale online and wondered how does it really work?  Then I got my answers when I found the following YouTube videos:

Avatar toys i-Tag Battle Pack: Battle Stumbeest vs AMP Suit.

At the moment, the level of technology only allows limited and continous repetition of a fixed set of movements on these 3-D images.  I’m sure in the near future, so much more could be potentially achieved in this field! 

When you see these videos and if you didn’t know how such augmented reality stuff actually works, you could have easily thought that those 3-D images had physically materialized above the i-Tags!  In actual fact, they only materialized virtually on your computer screen when you activate those i-Tags with your webcam.

Avatar toys i-Tag Battle Pack: Neytiri’s Banshee vs RDA Samson Gunship.

If only these 3-D images could materialize in our real world when we activate those Avatar i-Tags.  It would be even cooler if we could also control the actions of these 3-D images to fight an opponent Avatar i-Tag!  This would be more advanced than how those Digimon games of the 90’s (where you could make 2 Digimon characters fight together on the same screen when their game consoles are physically connected!).

Avatar toys i-Tag Battle Pack: Navi’s vs RDA Soldiers. 

Oh my, those Navi’s are so tall when they are to scale with the humans!  But in a real fight against soldiers with such modern weapons, the Navi’s are no match unless they take the soldiers by surprise in an ambush.  Fortunately these are virtual images and no ones gets hurt, phew!

——– 

In a way, the Avatar battles between the humans and the Navi’s remind me of the early days conflicts between the cowboys and the native Americans (aka Red Indians).  I observed (when I watched American TV shows made in the 60’s and 70’s) that little American boys in those decades liked to role play the cowboys vs native Americans gun and arrow fights. 

Back then, the latter were viewed negatively as “savages”, much like how the bad humans in the Avatar movie viewed the Navi’s.  Of course those past decades were the times when people were less sensitive about ethnic tolerance issues in the US.  Now people are more aware and accepting than before.  Hopefully the Avatar movie manages to reinforce the important of human harmony in our real world.

Last but not least, I leave you with this video on the 3-D i-Tag image of the Pandora landscape.  Watch what happens to the image when the i-Tag is removed from below it (yeah I was surprised by the result too)! Enjoy!   

James Cameron’s Avatar movie has become a worldwide success and it had been the most talked about movie to watch for the past 2 months.  Its toys however, are extremely hard to find in retail stores.  They are not sold in our departmental stores, and I doubt that they will be available at mass retail in Singapore, considering that the movie has finished screening in almost all the cinemas here. 

The Avatar movie toys are made by Mattel and it seems that detailed information and online photos or video reviews of these toys are very hard to come by on the internet.  I’ve been so used to the much easier research of Hasbro’s Transformers Revenge of the Fallen (ROTF) toys that I find researching on just a list of Avatar toys rather frustrating. 

Even YouTube has very limited good quality video reviews on the Avatar toys.  It could mean that either the Avatar toys are not popular in the US (where most of the fans and toy collectors are), or that its toy distribution is very limited, even within the US itself.  Such a pity really, as I do find the toys quite nice looking.  I’ve previously blogged about some Avatar toys video reviews.

Here is a video that shows a nice view of all the Pandora Creature toys available in the Avatar movie toyline so far, while its African-like background music is from the Avatar soundtrack (”Jake’s First Flight” by James Horner).

The Avatar Pandora Creatures featured in the above video are Jake’s Leonopteryx, Tsu-Tey (Neytiri’s fiance), Tsu-Tey’s Banshee (Glow in the Dark), Jake’s Banshee, Thanator, Jake & 2 Viper Wolves (is this what you’ll get when you mix the DNAs of the Cobra Vipers with G.I.Joe Snake Eye’s wolf!?), Eytukan (Neytiri’s dad) & Direhorse.

If you are in Singapore and you wish to add these Avatar toys to your collection, they can be found at some collectors’ toy shops, one of which is Simply Toys.  For overseas Avatar fans, you can get them online from Entertainment Earth, which ships outside the US as well.

Happy Avatar toys admiring and shopping!

Well Hasbro has indeed listened (a bit) to the My Little Pony fans.  We had wanted the return of the G1 Seaponies.  As such for 2010, we are getting the following Merponies (!??):

G3 My Little Pony - Merpony Cheerilee figurine

I’m speechless!  I wonder how do these Merponies swim with front hooves belonging to land ponies?  I still prefer the G1 Seaponies that resemble actual seahorses, and are hence more aesthetic in appearance.  So far the online reactions from My Little Pony fans around the world have been mixed.

G3 My Little Pony - Merpony Cheerilee figurine MOC

For the younger pony fans who didn’t grow up seeing the G1 Seaponies toys from the 80’s, I guess the G3 Merponies might please them enough.  Nevertheless, I do find the little marine animal friends that come packaged with the G3 Merponies rather cute!

G3 My Little Pony - Merpony  Pinkie Pie figurine

G3 My Little Pony - Merpony Pinkie Pie figurine MOC

G3 My Little Pony - Merpony Rainbow Dash figurine MOC

G3 My Little Pony - Merpony Rainbow Dash figurine MOC

G3 My Little Pony - Merponies Scootaloo & Cheerilee 2-pack figurines MOC

Cheerilee is noted to be a repeat Merpony character here.  Upon closer inspection, I realise that the 7th of the “core 7″ G3 My Little Pony characters - Starsong the pegasus, is missing from the Merponies line up.  Perhaps it’s because she has feathered wings, which might be “confusing” to swim with when she’s underwater?  I guess so.

G3 My Little Pony - Merponies Sweetie Belle & Toola Roola 2-pack figurines MOC

The above photos are taken from Hasbro’s website.  Their background story is: “Whenever the ponies visit the sea, they magically become beautiful mermaids!  Join them as they have waves of fun discovering a brand new world!”

I think these Merponies can go hang out with Ariel from Disney’s The Little Mermaid!  They would all make such good friends with one another, provided Ariel’s crab aide Sebastian approves of them, LOL!

I have a feeling that the Merponies might be available at mass retail here sometime this year.  I’ll keep a lookout for them and will blog about them again when they arrive on our shores! 

Meanwhile, to readers who are preparing to celebrate Chinese New Year (14 & 15 Feb 2010), happy spring cleaning! 

 The following photos say it all - the latest waves of My Little Pony toys have reached our local departmental stores!  Personally, I’m not a fan of this “G4″ version of My Little Pony.  Nonetheless, I still take special interest in seeing them at mass retail here.  These are the ones I sighted at the Japanese store whose name starts with “T”. 

My Little Pony: Shopping Day with Mom Set - front view

Mom & Baby Rainbow Dash (SGD 29.90)

The single-pack G3 My Little Pony Newborn Cuties didn’t come to Singapore.  Some of my fellow pony collectors adore them for their cuteness, while I dislike them for their humanoid features and non-pony appearance. I was glad not to see them here.  However, they did appear in the retails stores in the US and Australia.

My Little Pony: Shopping Day with Mom Set - back view

Mom & Baby Rainbow Dash (SGD 29.90)

Now it seems to identify with little girls who accompany their moms to the supermarket for grocery shopping, Hasbro has decided to create a new lifestyle for their My Little Pony characters - Shopping with Mom!  And to think that Hasbro hasn’t answered the fans’ question on where baby ponies come from if there aren’t any daddy ponies?  From the stork perhaps?  It’s not very socially healthy to promote single motherhood to kids isn’t it?  And why is it that only daughter ponies are born?  More unanswered pony questions for Hasbro…

My Little Pony Friend - Wave 4 (SGD 10.90 each)

Hmmm, I forgot to take the back view photo of the My Little Pony Friends from Wave 4.  Nevertheless, it’s still better than taking none!  Here we have Hasbro’s favourite and most convenient practice of doing repaints on the same molds over and over again (till the molds break perhaps?).  To the pony fans, the above repaints of the “core 7″ pony characters may be exciting, but not for me.  I gave up on them after seeing wave 1 (where the ponies only had their symbols on them and nothing extra).

If you’re a My Little Pony fan and you’re going shopping in Orchard Road this weekend, you can go check out these newest My Little Pony toys to hit town, at “T*********a”!  Have fun hunting for and collecting My Little Pony toys!

I found this video some time back and then lost the link.  Now I just re-discovered it and decided to share it here.  Making this paper craft model of Transformers Movie Bumblebee is mainly for the paper craft enthusiasts and ultimate Bumblebee fans!  The model parts illustrations and instructions can be downloaded for free!  In return you can choose to donate a token sum to encourage the creator for the efforts involved.

Making paper models is a lot cheaper than the plastic toys most toy collectors buy.  For me, I don’t have the patience to do this.  Nevertheless if you are adventurous enough and have the time to spare, why not go ahead and make you own Movie Bumblebee figure from paper?   For the X-Men fans, the creator also has the instructions to make a paper model of the Blackbird Jet!  Cool!

Happy toy making!

ROTF Deluxe NEST Cannon Bumblebee & Deluxe NEST Soundwave

I read with interest about a toy observation made by a Transformers fan.  The above Transformers Revenge of the Fallen (ROTF) Deluxe Bumblebee and Soundwave 2-pack have been observed to be the first ROTF toys packaged with twined paper ties!

It looks like Hasbro has finally heeded its customers’ constant feedback about those pesky twist wires that torment us whenever we free our Hasbro toys from their ’stubborn’ packaging.  In the near future, these environmentally friendly twined paper ties would be used instead, at last!  

I think by then my scissors would be too ‘blunted’ by many years of cutting tough twist wires, that they might not be able to cut through softer material like paper in one clean snip!  I wonder what took Hasbro so long to make the change?  Spirally metal costs perhaps?  I don’t really believe it’s for the forests!

Anyway, it’s better late than never.  I also look forward to seeing the above ROTF Deluxe ”Bloody Cannons” Bumblebee toy in our local departmental stores soon!  After all, he’s my favourite Transformers character in the ROTF movie!  Happy ROTF toys collecting!

Looks like this is the next level for such action figure toys that are based on pop culture movies, especially movies that use lots of CGI to generate all those make believe special effects!  Above is a video demo of how the webcam i-Tags that come with Mattel’s Avatar toys work. 

First you’ll need a webcam and download an application from the website specified on the Avatar toy packaging.  Then place the i-Tag in front of the webcam.  A 3-D model of an Avatar character (the same one as the toy you bought) will appear on your computer screen.  You can go on to control the movements of the 3-D model on screen by moving the i-Tag around or pressing the ‘buttons’ on the i-Tag!  Quite cool isn’t it? 

The DVDs of Transformers Revenge of the Fallen (ROTF) and G.I.Joe movies also come with similar Augmented Reality.  I’d expect the upcoming Avatar DVDs to have this special feature too!  As for the Avatar toys, I still don’t see any at mass retail in our departmental stores.  So far only collector’s toy shops carry them.  Anyway, till the Avatar DVDs and Blu-Rays roll into town in the coming months, happy waiting for them!

ROTF Leader Shadow Command Megatron action figure (SGD 109.90 each)

Hasbro has done it again with their Transformers Revenge of the Fallen (ROTF) toyline - another repaint.  This time it’s Leader Class Megatron who is adorned in new colors for the new year.  And he’s not just Megatron now, they call him “Shadow Command Megatron” to suit his change of colors.  Overall seeing the robot colors of Shadow Command Megatron (what a typeful of a name!) is like seeing Human Alliance (HA) Barricade in robot mode!  Don’t they look like brothers now?  LOL!

Meanwhile, here’s a video review of the first version of ROTF Leader Megatron action figure (in movie colors) that was released last year in conjunction with the ROTF movie screenings.  I’m still disturbed by the fact that his left arm is so tiny compared to his right arm, giving him a rather lopsided appearance.  In his tank mode he looks just fine though.  So far I’ve not managed to sport this mean Decepticon leader at local mass retail yet.  He might be coming anytime soon, provided Hasbro Singapore is still importing the rest of the ROTF toyline for 2010. 

Happy ROTF toy collecting! 

Action Figure Stands for sale at Entertainment Earth.

Product Description:

“The Action Figure Stands 25-Pack - Clear is pretty fantastic because it works with most modern-era 3.75-inch action figures from Hasbro and some from Playmates.  Jurassic Park III, Star Wars, Marvel and Playmates’ Star Trek movie line all work with these clear plastic display stands too.  Grab a bag of them, and keep your figures around you at work!  Set them up in dioramas!  They’re incredibly handy as well!”

More Action Figure Stands for sale at Entertainment Earth.

Well, the official product description says it all!  Looking at the photos above, I would much prefer these action figure stands to come with 2 pegs instead of just 1 for the feet of the action figures that they are meant to support.  It would be more steady, and it gives the option of using just 1 or both the pegs.

I’ve seen such similar plastic stands (also for 3.75-inch action figures) being sold at our Sunday toy market (China Square Central) before.  However, I don’t recall how much the sellers there were charging them for.  I like the clear stands.  Black stands would also look quite good to pose action figures with.

If you are keen, you can go grab a bag of these Action Figure Stands online, while stocks last!

At long last, the local saga about missing Doraemon Pig Lucky Charm Toy from McDonalds is over, or going to be over.  Judging from the initial public and fan reactions so far, it looks like there will still be 2 camps to it - those who are happy with the inclusion of the missing piggy, and those who are still unhappy (probably because they missed the opportunity to collect the earlier Doraemon Zodiac toys over the past 3 weeks as they decided not to collect the set at all in a fit of anger or something).

All the debate both online and offline, for the sake of a little stuff toy (about the size of your fist) that costs you just SGD 2.00 each with any purchase at McDonalds.  You can buy as many of these Doraemon toys as you want with any purchase, which I feel is very generous of McDonalds already, considering they didn’t make its customers be entitled to purchase just 1 out of 3 Doraemon toys available each week with every Value Meal purchase only (shudders at that fattening thought!).

I read LEons blog post with interest about this Doraemon piggy topic in Hong Kong.  With one look, the Hong Kong McDonalds website alone beats our local version hands down.  And they are offering all 13 Doraemon toys over there!  It’s a good thing that Doraemon piggy is finally coming to Singapore, although in about 3 months later only.  I hope that by then, McDonalds will also re-release the rest of the Doraemon Zodiac toys for customers who missed out on some of them (especially for those who regretted not getting them or were not able to pick them up on time).

Finally I hope to get some peace from the ongoing complaints about this Doraemon porky issue for the past few weeks (no offence to my fellow toy bloggers and readers who collect these toys).  I don’t collect these toys so I’ve been neutral about the whole Doraemon swine debate.  However I did help some friends pick up a few of these stuff toys (luckily they don’t collect the whole set!) when convenient and I have to agree that these little things sell out very quickly at many outlets.  No wonder some people get panicky or frustrated.  Next time, they can consider paying a fee to professional toy bounty hunters to do the job for them, LOL!

I’ve been very lucky in each of my Doraemon toy hunts (all hunting requests closed for now), achieving a 100% strike rate for all the hunting requests I received since the toy offer started.  Of course you don’t expect to ask me now to find all those toys that are already over.  The toy requests I had were all made before the toys came out, or during the week itself, even very late in that week (e.g. the Doraemon Ram).  Along the way, I fattened myself on sundaes, ice creams and apple pie snacks for the people who requested my help.  Now I broke one of my new year resolutions of eating fast food only once a month…  

Anyway back to the topic, for collectors who want to lay your hands on the last Doraemon piggy toy, McDonalds Singapore has requested that you go to their website to indicate your interest by participating in an online poll for it.  Be there or be square!  Happy waiting for that Doraemon ham!