Play ALL the mobils

Astronaut playmobil. Okay I might possibly maybe likely be obsessed with crazy playmobil figures (crazy ones only. don't care for the plain ones)

Look at all those glorious details and accessories! 

Diver dude in amusing diving outfit. Funny I'm saying this right after I blogged about how great playmobil's quality and design are, but this particular figure was such a design fail. As you can see in the pics, his shoes are broken. Both shoe actually broke into four pieces as I was trying to fit his foot inside. It was IMPOSSIBLE to do so without breaking it. It was like forcing the glass slippers into cinderallas stepsisters foot which eventually went kaboom! and exploded into a million bits. Had to glue everything back together but couldn't find that one little chunk :( 

Bought this huge 'J' made out of cardboard and tried painting it to look like rusted metal. Came out decent! Although my moms response was "Why would you want something that looks old and rusted? It looks gross." Because im an artist would've been an appropriate reply. 

Excuse me while I desperately filter out the ugliness of our kitchen with the strongest instagram filter possible.

Anyway, since this is the most valuable piece I own, I figured it deserves to be displayed on its own. Couldn't find a display box that would fit this giant figure so I went to a local plastic store (TAP plastic) and asked them to cut me a few pieces of acrylic. (They're awesome btw!!)  I gave them the dimensions of my box and they calculated exactly how much plastic I needed. Total came out to be around $25? Which is waaay cheaper than buying one for this size in store (if it exists). The toughest part was gluing the box together. Holy crap it was seriously a pain in the butthole. You definitely need two or more people to help you out. Acrylic cement is super runny and once it hits your plastic it'll immediately melt the surface and leave an ugly smudge you can't remove. I actually bought two boxes, I glued the one I made for my parents first and it came out butt ugly. My uncle and I got the hang of it after our first try so this one came out a lot nicer. Dramatic display it is!

Afterwards I went to a local wood working shop and asked them to cut me a piece of wood for the base. I was only able to get a piece of plywood so it didn't look as nice I thought it would after spray painting.

Stupidly forgot to take some pictures before I placed them on top of my book shelves. I'm afraid of heights and my chair wasn't tall enough so while trying to lift this heavy giant box, I felt like I was gonna topple over and spill my brains all over the floor.

Tada!

Looks so small here but I ensure you its huge.

Was able to get out of work early so I stopped by Toy R Us to browse for a gift for my second cousins *liescoughits actuallyformyself*. Was only planning to browse (and buy it for cheaper on Amazon later ha!) but I ended up buying this large Big Hero 6 figure. It's produced by bandai and actually being sold at the disney store for $30! I got this at Toys R Us for $20 (same price as Amazon). Haven't seen the movie yet although I love the character designs. Probably won't be obsessed with collecting Big Hero figures until I watch the movie so I've decided to leave it unopened until I've actually seen the movie. Had a feeling this figure would sell out quick and people would be jacking up prices soon so I just bought it. Quality is a bit made in China-ish but it's not like I'm going to play with it anyway. 

 Finishing post with a nice warm bowl of udon. Bought this expensive korean udon that comes with soup base, bonito flakes, and this package of onions with tempura bits. Tastes as good as restaurant ones!

Tiny rubber ducks from vending machines. About the size of a quarter. Wish I'd gotten more!! 

Photography fail. Wanted to capture this crazy decked out car next to mines, but I chickened out cause my lane was starting to move as I tried to take this shot. 

Semi-fail hassle back potato!! Last time I failed cause I couldn't cut the potato properly, this time it's actually all in one piece! it's a pretty nerve wrecking process because you can't cut too far but if you don't cut enough it won't fan out properly. Semi-fail because I didn't bake it long enough, stuck it back in the oven at least three times and finally gave up. Uncooked potatoes are the worse things ever.

Portlandia was filming right outside my workplace. Was pretty excited to see all the crews and their equipments but didn't get to see any filming in progress :( 

Playmobil blind pack! Might actually start collecting the ones I like...

Also got this pretty badass one. Even comes with a little weapon hanger!!

Found out that all playmobil toys are made in Europe from their original factory, hence the superb quality and impressive attention to details. If you compare a playmobil figure to some other made in China toy, you can feel the difference in quality (material and paint job wise). While assembling these figures, I realized how well they're designed. Playmobil has been around for ages but I've always brushed them aside thinking they're the baby version of legos (I know, shame on me), but now I'm starting appreciate how much detail they're willing to put into their figures. 

Couldn't resist getting a tiny tiny giraffe. I have a thing for giraffe toys and illustrations. He's around the size of a quarter. Probably gonna get lost somewhere in my room soon.

Saw this wooden horse outside the toy store. Love the design!!

Snacks from my cousin from HK. She said she picked them all based on their packaging cause she knows me too well hahah

A happy door :)

Finally painted the door of my studio! Always wanted to paint the door a bold happy color...

Before.

First step was to spray paint my gold door knobs. I used rust oleum's ORB paint and primer. The best spray paint I've ever used! I was amazed by the coverage and how quick the whole process went. The shiny/glittery metallic finish looks great when you see it in person.

Photoshopped various colors to see how it would look. Went with the yellow green one.

Ended up buying benjamin moore's snow cone green. It's a bit more on the yellow side which was exactly what I wanted. Was going to go with benjamin moore's limeade color, but it seemed too dull irl. 

Tada! 

 Outside 

Planning to draw something simple on the outside of the door but haven't decided on what yet. 

Back?

Was planning to abandon this blog and just combine it in my art blog...I have a pinterest to keep track of all the new toys and products which makes my life about 1000x easier compared to saving hundreds of pictures and uploading them into this blog. But then I realized I have a lot of pictures I collected on my phone that I never posted anywhere and they would seem too random in my art blog. SO im back here again to share some toy related stuff.

Starting with some super old pictures (last year).

So I went through a crazy claw-machine addiction phase last year and now I have this HUGE bag of plush sitting my garage. There were some cool stuff in the machines I wanted, but I was mainly interested in the challenge. It takes some serious technique and skills to get how these machines worked. I gradually stopped playing and now I've been drug claw-free for a year...ha!

My biggest win was probably this giant Gabba dude from the $1 per play machines. He's around 2ft tall. Took me $2 to win. The purple minion to the left was also a claw win.

  Forgot what series... Bought this too long ago.

 Artist Ren who's basically the first series Ren but in blue. Sister bought me this, don't think I would buy this myself because it's too similar to the first one (which I already have).

Saw this deer figure in an Ikea catalog and knew I had to buy it. Was surprised by the heavy metal (?) material it's made out of.

Bought this Moon fox kit which was fun to put together but I was extremely disappointed by how pulling off the pieces would leave these "broken plastic" marks that couldn't be sanded or painted away since the figure is transparent. Wished they had put this into consideration before production.  

My mom loves going to thift stores and garage sales to hunt for vintage stuff. She bought this schemer android from goodwill for $1 cause she thought it looked like something I would collect. Although I don't collect androids, this figure was actually an exclusive figure that Google gave away during the launch of their schemer app and was sold on eBay for $550 at the highest. It's one of the most rare androids out there. 

Display case in my studio is getting so full that I will have to rearrange everything again...Look at my poor plushies being squashed together in the top shelf.

Bought these little worry people from World Market. Had to get them because they're actually hand made by people from Guatemala and have a cute story behind them. I would love to incorporate them into an art piece later.

  

Been wanting this 16" astro lapin forever!! It's designed by mr.clement, a London based Hong Kong artist (gotta support my fellow hk artists!) so I waited patiently for a good deal and finally bought this from 3d Retro. To my major disappointment the figure arrived with SEVERAL dark smudges on it's face and body that couldn't be removed with anything. The smudges were on the front of the figures face so it was extremely noticeable. This figure was NOT cheap, in fact it's the way beyond my usual toy limit and the first time I've spent so much on a single figure. I've been worried about my order because I've heard about 3d Retro's horrible customer service and suspicious transactions, but I bought from them anyway cause they just relaunched their store so I figured things couldn't go wrong. I immediately emailed them with photos and asked if I could get an exchange. Obviously they never bothered to respond to any of my emails. Based on what I've heard from other buyers, doing any kind of refund or exchange with them seemed like a serious pain in the butt risky. I just can't believe a major toy store like them would let this pass quality control and sell them to their customers for that price. So in the end I decided I would try to spray paint him white again myself. Thankfully it turned out okay! :) FYI: I stuck some clay into it's eyes before I sprayed painted which is why it looks weird in the photos.

Mom came home with some playmobil figures from her garage sale hunt hahah. I think toys are in our genes...

Yoshi nano blocks (I think they're fake nano blocks) the sis bought and built from HK. Still have a panda one I need to try building...

Some souvenirs the sis bought from HK and her trip to Singapore. Note the gold Legos with my name engraved (no they're not made from real gold haha)