Toy-store scouting Down Under.....

I've been away for quite some time from updating my blog. In fact, the mini entry I did a couple of days ago was just to notify my blog that it has not been forgotten...hehe. Between being seriously tied down to work committment for the past couple of weeks, I've actually had the chance to go to a city in the Western side of the largest island country in the world a week ago for holidays. Never I expected to haul any toys from Down Under, but there was a definitely a tiny glimmer of hope that I'd randomly bump into some cool toy stores.

As I've been to the city a couple of times prior to this current trip, I vividly remember that there were no TRU stores in the smack of town (there was one during my 1st visit but has since relocated to the suburbs). Naturally, through the help of some family friend, on this particular visit, I was redirected to a TRU in one of the suburbs away from the city. Now this particular TRU reminded me a lot to the 'cool' TRU in Malaysia back when it first opened its' stores in the late 80's; back before they became the epitome of 'lame' of a toy store as it is now. Poor selection of toys, limited type of products and downsized floor space are among the main criticisms aimed at the local Malaysian TRU. I'm sure many of us missed the 'old TRU' before the franchising rights were sold to some relatively unknown company. But that's another story....

On to the review. As the store is electronically monitored as most stores were i.e. surveillance cameras are at every unsuspecting corners, I was unable to point my camera to my whims and fancy. Hence, all I managed was to snap the two pictures below of the Star Wars aisle. Since most of the other toys are pretty much the same as the TRU back home, I didn't even bother to take pictures of any of those 'generic' toys. These two pictures however, show the aisle where Star Wars model kits were. Boy do I miss those days when I could see model kits on sale back in in the local TRU....*sigh*!

And did I leave the store empty handed? Very unlikely since I came thousands of kilometers to visit the country.....hahah. My 'small' haul from this excellent TRU is as follows:

Imperial Shuttle & AT-AT model kits

Next, is a series of pictures showing 'hidden' shots of a collector toy store (no, I'm not gonna name it here...) that my wife and I accidently stumbled across during our foray into town. Yeah, I know I'm NOT supposed to snap pictures of business premises....bla.....bla...bla.....but hey, considering that I came thousands of kilometers to hunt for such an excellent store, I just couldn't help myself. Since I couldn't whip out my DSLR (the store clerks were watching like hawks!), I had to resort to using my trusty ol' 2 Megapixel handphone camera instead (hence the low clarity pictures). Excellent toy selection....even those vintage ones were selling at reasonable prices. By saying reasonable, I mean that after conversion to the local Malaysian currency, those were still ok compared to some of the price I've seen in some Malaysian toy stores.

Geek dream come true! I didn't want to leave, browsing thru 'em is already sheer joy! :p

My wife and sister as the 'candid' models! :)

The 3.75" Star Wars section. If you look on the above/upper cabinets, you can see Sideshow 12" figures, model kits, maquettes and mini statues on display (and for sale too I presume!).

Close up on some vintage 3.75" Star Wars figs.

The funny thing is, my wife and I didn't buy anything from this particular store. Instead, we went to its' sister store (yes, this toy store has ANOTHER outlet located just a couple of stores next to it!) which specializes in selling 'backdated' toys at insane low prices! Take a look at the pictures below. These were our haul from this 'discount' action-figure store. If you could 'zoom' in closely, you can clearly see that the price tag says AUD10 on each figure! I mean, it's a no brainer if you asked me! For clearer (and bigger!) view of these pictures, check 'em out at my flickr page. I still can't put it to my head that these toys costs just AUD10 (just about USD7) each!!!

From the HUSH series, Commissioner Gordon, Ra's al Ghul & Alfred

From the POTC NECA series

I'm particularly proud of my haul of Gozer, from the NECA Ghostbusters' movie line. At just AUD10 (about USD7) for that figure, it sure beats the heck out of the extorted price on eBay!

Alex Ross' Supergirl.....:D (finally found her at a bargain price!)

DC Direct's 1st Appearance Riddler

And last but not least, my wife found this figure of the late Steve Irwin at a souvenir shop in town. We just had to have him, the man's a national treasure! :)

Not bad for 'accidental' purchases....:p