The girl who did not smile

Well, what did you expect? We drove her to a studio, and never tell her what to expect. The camera man then leads everyone to a small room where all the lights were on her, with everyone telling her to smile. You're not going to smile too. In fact, you might be afraid from all the sudden attention.

I wanted to hit the camera man in the head because

he would not let me use the camera to help calm the

situation down. I sarcastically told my wife to wait

there while I go home and take my camera.....

Metering my car

Here I am, adding another meter to my car. This time, its a voltage meter plus some extras switches. Yeah, my car's electrical is going nuts, which I suspect could be due to the rusts. The voltage meter is for me to see how the car is doing but for all you know, it won't drop or rise as I expect. Maybe I should have gotten an ammeter with a 100A shunt instead. As for the switches, the red one is to monitor the brake lights while the white one is for reverse lights. Should any of the two not working, I will simply press the switch to bypass them manually.

To tell you the truth, I wanted to do the brake light switch ever since I got the car in the late 90's to simulate an emergency brake. But the switch would be those industrial mushroom types and p;aced in front of the dash in such a way that the driver behind cannot see I pressed it. He he he he.

Introducing one of my 'latest' tool, the metal nibbler.

Its the latest because I kept it for years and just got

to see it again. I asked around on how to cut metal

and Multifilla showed me a tool which is exactly

like mine. I am so stupid.

You cut a small hole for it to come through and then

you can start 'nibbling' the metal until you get the

shape that you need.

I wanted to put the special flip cover for the red switch

but there is not enough space. Too bad.

Since the meter is running on 5 volts, I can

just bolt on a 5v voltage regulator to the

metal casing which then acts as a big heatsink

Unfortunately, I can't find my heatsink thermal

transfer cream.

Looking from the side, there are no shorts. But I

am not taking any chances and so, I will use those

heatshrink tubing for the voltage regulators. And

when I need to wire up the switches later, it'll be

very messy in there.

At the same time, I decided to check my Tachometer

which has dimming problems. Since I do not have the

original specs, I used the next best component. So, it

now has a very bright display but cannot dim much.

There you go. As you can see, the two meters on the

right have spoilt displays and well, I am not going to

try repair them since I just opened them a few mins

ago and I suspect it has something to do with the

microprocessor IC. And I do not have the HEX files

to program them.

New things at SDCC 2010

Years ago, with the advent of the Internet, news reports of Cons (Conventions) do not interest me much even though I've been to one in the early 90's. But after going to MITF 2010 at Mid-Valley, I am still in a high over cons. So, while we had MITF, they had SDCC. And because being there is not economically viable, I had to contend with pictures from the Internet and maybe get my stuff from eBay.

I am not going to put up photos if chicks in costumes since they're all over the Net now. what I am going to post are the items of interest which I hope, would fall into my hands in the very near future....

The Farnsworth communicator , from Warehouse 13

by Quantum Mechanix. But I think one of the buttons

is wrong. Maybe its the middle one which is black.

Mark VI Iron Man Arc Reactor from Museum

Replicas. One of the actual companies who did

the Iron Man Helmets and went a step further

giving it a chrome look (which is a magnet for

finger prints) when you're not supposed to.

It looks very weird and personally, it looks

like one of those toy miniature Batman search

lights when it is lit.

Which means, I prefer my toy better. Just a coat of silver

paint, is all I need. Heh.

Tron Identity disk

Ghostbusters PKE Meter from Mattel

At the eFX booth, they had theMk X Medical

Tricorder. Basically, it is the same as the Mk IX.

Unfortunately, the screen is not 'Medical' in this

picture.

But with the difference that there is a handheld

scanner underneath the Tricorder. And if I am

not mistaken, there is supposed to be some blue

LEDs in there but I forgot where.

But my dream Tricorder is this one, the MkVII

aka TR-580, which debut in season three of STNG

Ah, what a beauty!

Not sure if this is the 1/1000 JJPrise

Quantum Mechanix's USD50.00 phaser from the movie

And their studio scale model (1/20?) Viper model

Which comes with a working DRADIS!

Beautiful Pictures from SDCC 2010

While we have the MITF, in America, they have the San Diego Comic Convention (SDCC) and after filtering most of the photos, I now present you the best photos of the lot....

Finally, Vader came to his senses and saved the Universe

Taken from (http://www.cbc.ca/photogallery/arts/3713/)

The riff in the family. Mom wants to work while

the kid wants build his career....

Say what?

Kristine: Mommy, this is so small. You need a magnet..finding glass

Mommy: Hah?

Me: Magnifying glass

So, why do you Troop?

So, why to you Troop? You don't know what is Trooping? Trooping is where you lug your armour around in a big luggage, dress up with it, walk around and sweat in it while letting people make monkey faces and fondle you while breaking your stuff in the process.

So, why do you Troop?

You stand like a mannequin andlet people stuff you into big piecesof plastic that functions more likea portable sauna.

People challenge you on the size
of your wee-wee....

And you throw all your stuff about the place
when you lose

Heck, even everyone loses

But when you do go out there, its all worth it

Because you get the girls

Even if you poke around, acting your character

People will thank you for doing a good job,

And some will even try to give you gifts

Because not only do you get to be who
you are, you get to act out your character.

And best of all, the girls will be
waiting for you.

If you maintain proper personal hygiene,
everyone will want to help you.

It does not matter if you like doing
the Butt-dance alone

Or with a friend (The Sodom-dance).

If you like doing the thumb-me dance

Or the mutant rabbit dance,

No one will bat an eye because they know,
and you know,

The girls will still be there

And even when someone tells you that
they ran out of duct tape for your
armour

And you thrash the place in anger, daring the duct tape to show up

You STILL get the girls

Some extra photos:This is one of the reasons why you cannot

stand still for too long. Or when Jawas are
around....

Look. You're still too short to be
a Stormtrooper. So, go home and
eat more vegetables, OK?

Move along! Nothing to see here. Move along!
We don't need to see you papers and these are not the droids we're looking for!

For nexus

So, I finally got he 1" tubes. They don't have the 3/4" ones as there were no stock. I think he said something about being discontinued but I am not so sure. Since the Bosses were not around, they gave the price of RM25.00 which I literally took and ran. Tempted to go back there and get some for myself too.

10 inches in height, almost two feet across

and weigh almost one kilo. All for Rm25.00

The Malaysia International Toy fair 2010

Where shall I begin. Its already Tuesday and I am still suffering from it. Not from the exhaustion but the short-circuiting of my brain from all the ideas and feedbacks coming from Pol, Swee Ho, James, Bruce, etc since yesterday. Those are the wonderful ideas which in theory, should keep my busy for a year before the second MITF, that is.

The Malaysian Toys International Fair as I was being informed, was the first Toy Fair in Malaysia (which succeeded). When I mean successed, it was based on my own observations:

1) On the frist day, even at 1930, people are still queuing up to PAY RM3.00 to get into the Fair eventhough 30%have closed for the day.

2) The crowds are never ending, even during Lunch and Dinner time.

Anyway, since there are a lot of things happening, I will comment on the photos la.

Booths

It is very surprising that there were a lot of participants and some even came from Indonesia. But what I did not know was that some of the designer toys actually were from Malaysia! Indirectly, the booths were divided into a few catergories; PC Games, Toy Shops, Designers, Books, and Fan exhibitions.

The Predator weapon with its very

nice white LEDs pulsating outwards

(http://www.Shioktoys.com)

Dweey designer toys and Liselle paintings

(http://www.dweey.com)

I like this one very much

You can pretty much design your own Dweey

Lisa Lee, the Malaysian creator of Liselle.

Forgot to buy some stuff from her.

I love the T-shirts and they're so nice, its a shame

to actually wear them. Again, I forgot to buy them

and I think, the good ones were gone.

(http://www.shabowlbrothers.com)

Another designed toy, but this one reminds me

of Dr. Slump.

(http://www.bigbrosworkshop.com)

Card games in progress. Not interested. 'nuff said.

Steven Choe of ToyGarden/ToyWizard

(http://www.toygarden.net or http://www.toywizard.net)

Old Master Q

The infamous Batman from Hot Toys with the

'oil' oozing out from its midriff

Blythe dolls

I don't know what came over me but I am

starting to find the ones with the doggy

very cute. Years ago, just their very

image gets on my nerves.

Macross Fans of Malaysia. Did you see anything wrong?

Yep, they snuck in a very beautiful AV-98 Patlabor!

With all the models, I am not really interested

with much except for this Elinseeker,

And this model.

The new ones are not very attractive except that

they look more aerodynamic. To me, its like an

Ally McBeal model.

And most of them looked as if they have a lot of

add-ons to make it look tough. Still this one did

catch my eye.

Transformers fans of Malaysis

(http://www.transmy/com)

I want the Blaster, which is the red/yellow

boombox eventhough the transparent

Optimus prime was next to it.

Wow. A clear Alternator Transformer. Too bad

I did not see any Headmaster or Powermasters

Darren Chan, creator of Doodolls being

interviewed.

Gempak Starz artists drawing on a canvas which

will be sold later.

(Anticlockwise L-R: Keith, Jo, Little and Kaoru)

Of Mascots, Cosplayers and 501st

Nowadays, shows like these without a mascot or a costumed character is like eating rive without the gravy, or a banana without the durian......... (eh?).

Doodolls mascot being lead around the halls, much

to the delight of fans and young kids.

I am not sure what this is, but the costume

is definitely very innovative.

Cosplayers (of what?)

A character from Blade, I think

Guys from Halo

He did this from pepakura and strenghtened

the paper with resin and fiberglass. You can

see from the costume, its a lot of work and

he is very talented. I wanted to talk to him

about improving his helmet LEDs but I was

rushed for time as I was helping with costumes

On the left, is a boy who looks like a girl while on the

right is a girl who dresed up as a boy (Kadajj from

final fantasy VII:Advent Children)

Not sure what it was, but I would guess

its Hakune Miku or something at the

Animax booth.

Trust me, I was speechless too but he

was very accomodating and patient.

Star Wars Lightsaber fight courtesy of Outpost Toys

Prize giving for the winners of Droid hunt

with Darth Vader picking the winners.

My part in the Grand scheme of things

So, what was I doing there for two whole days? I was there because of my two buddies, Kal and nexus. Kal was there because he is Boba Fett for 501st and nexus was there because he did the costume for the Warhammer 40K Sisters of battle. I was there because I did the electronics for both of them. And I also ended up helping the 501st in suiting up and off on their costumes. So, now, I know how to suit up a Stormtrooper, a Sandtrooper and a Boba Fett.

Me with the Sisters of Battle Bolter

A Stormtrooper getting ready all by himself

Behind the scenes: Sister of Battle getting ready

This is what I have been doing. Helping the 501st

getting in and out of their costumes. This way, it

would reduce the suit up time. You won't care

about this until you really need to 'go'.

We have to think fast and always on our feet as

sometimes, we need to repair or reinforce the

costumes within a very short time and very

little tools. We improvise ala MacGyver, la.

And sometimes, you really have to stretch things and

tell them to "suck it in' as well. With no battles, troops

can get fat very fast. This is very evident ever since

the Empire lost to the rebels.

Everyone was fighting for the mirror before

going out there. Nothing to do with vanity

but the effort to make the costume look

just 'right'.

My electronics. On the front is the Boba Fett chest

display on prototype board as the vendor went on

holiday. Background is th Bolter's ammo counter

I was so pleased to see it working when Kal put it

into his armour and switched it on, eventhough it

was not accurate because I only had three days to

come up with it after learning about the PCB problem

And seeing the visitor's smiling or picking up

their jaws from the floor was really worth it

And I was made Honorary member of the 501st!

Sorry. I wanted to show you who they are but as

I did not have the clearance from the 501st, it'll

have to be in 'Ski mask' mode for now.

So, after going through the first MITF, and talking to a lot of members, plus nexus and Bruce, i think I am going to do something for next year's MITF but right now, I have to get ready for SF in December. I also find that i really enjoy being 'behind the scenes' guy instead of being the guy in a costume. But who knows?

As nexus said, "Adeptus Mechanicus". Yes, I am thinking very hard on this one.