What I really mean is that the Avatar movie toys have appeared at one of the major mass retail stores here in Singapore!  Previously, only certain local collectors’ toys shops were selling them since the Avatar movie was screened in the cinemas here about 3 months ago. 

The above Avatar movie toys were spotted at “the biggest toy store there is”, the one where “I don’t want to grow up”.  The outlet is in Orchard Road, inside the building that faces a pair of massive Chinese Stone Lions sitting opposite.  Its other less accessible outlet along Orchard Road doesn’t have them, as of today. 

No other departmental stores along Orchard Road, Chinatown or Bugis area have any Avatar movie toys, as of today.

The 6 inch Avatar Movie Masters action figures cost SGD 29.95 each while the Avatar Interactive Battle Pack Set with 3.75 inch Avatar Jake Sully are at SGD 34.95 each.

The medium sized Avatar vehicles like RDA Grinder and AMP Suit (version 2) cost SGD 49.95 each. 

The large Avatar Creatures like the Leonopteryx figure and the large Scorpion Gunship vehicle toy are at SGD 59.95 each.

No other Avatar movie toys were seen there.  They must have either been sold out or they did not come yet.

Judging from the looks of the half empty shelves above, the sales of the toys look rather good.  Or perhaps only limited stocks came. 

Nonetheless, if you are keen to add these Avatar movie toys to your collections, you might want to start checking the departmental stores nearest your homes soon!  Happy Avatar toys collecting!

You can also check out my previous blog posts on Avatar movie toys:

Avatar toys review

Avatar toys Augmented Reality demo

Avatar action figures - Pandora creatures

Avatar Interactive Battle Pack Set

If you have no plans for the weekend and you’re in the mood for some impulse toy buying, you can drop by a certain departmental store that is situated very near our favourite Sunday Toy Market.  A friend spotted large numbers of this “nocturnal bird” on further clearance sale there yesterday!

G.I.Joe The Rise of Cobra (ROC) Night Raven @ SGD 20.00 each.

Nearly all the boxes there are creased or dented along certain edges.  It’s as if each of them had dropped onto the floor at least once to end up with those damaged packaging.  I hope the toys inside are all right.  No wonder they are now selling at a much lower clearance price than before (my guess only).

Update on 28 Feb 2010: There are still around 50 boxes of this ROC Night Raven toy seen at the store, as of today.  The photo above shows 1 of the 2 stacks of these toys there.  Toy sightings information is accurate as of 28 Feb 2010.  On any date after that, I cannot guarantee if they still have stocks.  You’ve got to go there and find out yourself.

Dept Store Location: O*, but only at the outlet nearest China Square Central (CSC).

Note: Please read the location description above very carefully before you head there to check it out.  Make sure you understand where’s that location I’m referring to!

This is a catalog photo showing how the jet toy looks like out of box. 

Here is the video review of the ROC Night Raven vehicle toy for your reference. 

If you are in Singapore and you have a copy of today’s edition (26 Feb 2010) of The New Paper, turn to page 6 and you’ll see a large black and white photo on it.  I don’t have scanner to scan that photo though. 

Basically the photo shows a trio of recent years power ranger figures on the floor against a wall.  In front of them are an array of offerings of toys, milk and drinks.  The caption below the photo states - 

“Superhero Superstitions: Police found figurines used for prayer during a raid on an illegal gambling den in Geylang Lorong 8 on Wednesday.  The den operators apparently gave offerings of toys, milk and sweets to the figurines in the hope of better earnings.”

——–

My thoughts:

I know I often imagine my toys “coming to life” and having “unique personalities” of their own, but this takes the cake.  To worship them like deities is a little too startling for me. 

I can’t identify which series of power rangers those are in the photo.  I’m not sure if they are original brand products or bootleg versions.  One thing for sure, I’ll never see them as mere toys again!  Creepy…

An observation I’ve made about some toys collectors’ buying patterns is that when there is some sort of toys clearance sale, they will first do the usual of buying all the pieces that they have wanted all along. 

Then the sale items are sold out or they get restocked at much lower rock bottom clearance prices.  Those who had held back at the previous sale now enter the buying frenzy.  These are the patient yet very lucky ones who took the right “gamble” by waiting for further price reductions.  Most importantly, they are able to be at the right places at the right times. 

Among this round of buyers are those who had bought at original retail prices during the hype of the toy fad, and those who already bought at the higher clearance prices at the earlier sale.  Seeing how much cheaper the toys have become tempts them to buy some more of the same toys to keep unopened, or to open up for play and display.  Sometimes it’s to replace faulty or imperfect pieces that they already own.  Maybe there’s this fear that the toys may deteriorate over time, so it’s good to have another piece, or multiple pieces on stand by.

Once a clearance toys buying frenzy starts, it can get out of hand in the minds of some toy collectors.  It’s like some sort of rare opportunity not to be missed, even if you have those toys already.  This feeling is very similar to the emotions felt during the “rapid growth” stage of toy collecting.  Logic thinking flies out the window while emotions rule the head.

The other resulting type of toys buying frenzy happens to the toy collectors who for some reason, are always on the tail ends of the clearance toys hunting parties.  This is one very anxious, stressed and frustrated lot of buyers.  Everywhere they go, the clearance toys they want are all sold out.  Tough luck.  At the end of the clearance sale, they wonder why they acted like that.  I have no clear answer to that except for a sudden unexplanable wave of obsession that swept into their minds then.  Again, emotions win over logic.

Some of them end up buying loads of toylines that they didn’t think of collecting in the first place, but the attractive toys clearance sales gave them the opportunities at the right prices.  These are the lucky ones who scored a bargain.  For others, it is simply “impulse buying” and “herd mentality”.

There is no right or wrong in these emotions.  Many of us go through them at some stages of our lives.  Even if it is not toys, it can be other items that we use in our everyday lives.  All consumer goods go through clearance sales eventually, and our buying frenzy gets activated into bargain hunting modes.  It’s just that for some people, there is “after impulse purchase regret”.  Good luck on clearing those impulse items!  Humans are ruled by emotions much more than logic.  Life’s just like that!

Since I started blogging about toy collecting around 2 years ago, I’ve received emails and blog comments from fellow toy collectors sharing their similar predicaments during the course of their toy hobbies.  One of the most common result of collecting toys is having your room or most parts of your home overrun by your massive toy collections.

Buying toys feels great, both during the act of buying and during those few days following the purchase.  Then the interest in that new toy fades over the subsequent weeks and months.  It is then stored aside and you embark on your next hunting expedition for another toy that catches your fancy.  And so the vicious never-ending cycle repeats itself over and over again. 

At the end of the day, you might wonder why you bother to collect something that you would lose interest in so quickly after acquiring it.  I can only explain in short that a lot of us actually enjoy “the thrill of the hunt”, rather than owning the actual “toy trophy” itself.  Then when your “toy conquests” build up to a huge size that is not comfortable to handle, disillusionment with the hobby sets in.

Having been in this hobby for many years, I’m not surprised by the various states of psychology that toy collectors share with me in their emails and blog comments.  I’ve blogged about the different kinds of emotions I had personally felt, and still feel.  You know what you’re getting yourself into, but you feel seemingly ‘powerless’ to rectify it, or you simply just ’surrender’ to it.  Doing the latter is usually the more popular option.

Then when toy collectors finally ‘open’ their eyes and start to ‘really look’ at their enormous toy collections, they begin to wonder what they have done with their lives for the past x number of years.  I guess people all go through different stages in their lives.  When some toy collectors begin to feel “disillusioned” with their toy hobbies, it’s usually either they collected toys based on hype or trends, or it’s really time for them to move on in their lives.  We’re all different, so we subsequently make different decisions about our toy hobbies.

Some toy collectors tell me they don’t why they were so obsessed with collecting certain toylines during a particular period of time.  They were very sure that they did love those toys and the comics / cartoons / movies that the toys were based on, a long time ago.  Then for no good reason, they now feel that they no longer want to keep their toy collections etc., anymore.  They just know that they want to get rid of those items and there is no more attachment to the toys anymore.

So what are my responses to such toy collectors who have become disillusioned with their toy hobbies?  Well you’ve got to ask yourself why you collected those toylines in the first place.  If the reason no longer applies, then go ahead and sell or clear the toys away.  Make space in your home for newer things to come into your life and enrich you.

Sometimes, the toy collector still likes the toyline, but not the entire range of all the toys ever made and released.  They somehow just bought everything in the toyline so as to “complete the sets”.  In the end, the toy collector only likes certain characters and vehicles etc. only.  Hence trimming the collection of the unloved pieces and keeping only the well-loved pieces usually does the trick.

I hope this article has been useful to you.  For ideas on how to sell your collectible toys, you can read my previous blog posts about this topic:

How to quit your toy hobby

How to sell your toys online

How to sell your toys offline

How to manage your toys population

Happy toy collecting and managing!

ROTF Human Alliance (HA) Mudflap & Chromia with Agent Simmons action figures

Retail price: SGD 69.90

The above Transformers Revenge of the Fallen (ROTF) toys have been spotted at some departmental stores in Orchard Road this week.  Some of the stores are currently having up to 20% discount on their ROTF toys. 

A video review of these toys can be viewed at my earlier blog post on them. 

Happy ROTF toys shopping and collecting!

Just a very short post: -

I have updated my Articles page with previous blog posts about my Toy Collecting Tips Series.  You can now find their links easily and read about them more conveniently.  Happy toy collecting!

 Interesting advertising gimmick isn’t it?

The following are some of the Transformers Revenge of the Fallen (ROTF) toys sightings at a mega toy store in Vivo City this week:

Takara Tomy ROTF Voyager Shanghai Attack Demolisher Figure at SGD 63.90.

They also have Takara Tomy ROTF Voyager Recon Ironhide and Takara Tomy ROTF Voyager Bludgeon at SGD 63.90 each.

Takara Tomy ROTF Scout Brakedown Figures at SGD 19.90 each.

Takara Tomy ROTF Deluxe Dirge & Red Rampage Figures at SGD 38.90 each.

Hasbro Deluxe Dirge, Armorhide, Ratchet, Brawn, NEST Bumblebee, Lockdown and the rest in the same wave are also available there at SGD 27.90 each.

I also spotted the ROTF Robot Powered Machines (RPMs), both single packs and 2-packs for the first time in Singapore!  They are die cast matchbox size ROTF vehicles toys with the sculpt of their respective robot modes at the undercarriage. 

The paintwork is very shiny and they make great collectibles, provided you don’t mind that they can’t transform into robot modes at all.  Nevertheless, they are very nice looking for display.

The single packs (wave 5) seen are: Optimus Prime, Bumblebee (2010 Camaro), Ratchet, Megatron and Jetfire - SGD 6.90 each.

The 2-packs there are: Optimus Prime vs Bonecrusher, Jazz vs Brawl, NEST Stealth Bumblebee vs Recon Barricade and another pair I can’t recall  - SGD 11.90 per pack.

Happy ROTF toys collecting!

I found the following videos on YouTube and I thought that the Transformers fans and collectors among my blog readers might be interested in viewing them.  Enjoy!

Toy Fair 2010 - Hasbro Transformers Product Preview Presentation 1

Toy Fair 2010 - Hasbro Transformers Product Preview Presentation 2

Yes you heard it right - ROTF Deluxe Elita-1 can indeed combine with ROTF Deluxe Chromia and ROTF Deluxe Arcee that were released last year.  Online instructions on how to do so will be made available by Hasbro this year.

Toy Fair 2010 - Hasbro Transformers Product Preview Presentation 3

Toy Fair 2010 - Hasbro Transformers Product Preview Presentation 4