Oh!pEnions

A very Macross Toy

Finally, another target has been achieved. This was a toy I have set my eyes upon when I first saw it in Sungei Wang many years ago. Unfortunately, the owner does not want to sell it to me even if I offered a good price for it and even prepared to wait for the 'display period' to be over. Many months later, I found out it was sold. I was very angry with that fact and I was ready to walk up to the owner to give him a piece of my mind. But what do you know, revenge comes in mysterious ways and yep, his shop closed down.

And so, its one of those things that I have to keep in mind when I go to places. And just so that it happened that it was being sold on eBay, and it was the cheapest of the lot. The others were being sold almost five times the amount excluding postage.... yes, a rip-off.

And after three weeks, it arrived on my office's
desk. All in one piece, luckily.

When I first took it out, I was a bit skeptical because
the design of the box looks very much like those used
by resin recasters in the 90's.

Its good that I was wrong and so, guess which figure
I was after?

Yep, its the pilot in the cockpit. Roy Focker, the
hero's mentor in the original Macross series.

My memory escapes me but it was such a long
time ago I have watched a single Macross from
the RTM station. But I knew the cockpit wasn't
that cramped. Still, in this toy, its almost 10cm
long or 4 inches. So, its very big.

First thing first. Assemble the stand. Its
a three piece and looks quite solid.

One big surprise is that the base of the stand
is actually transparent but coated in black.
yep, idea forming in my head already.....

Looking at the main piece, its actually comprised
of other smaller parts which were glued during
manufacturing. But basically, you have the main
craft, the pilot and seat plus part of the craft again.

And it looks very impressive when set up!
Now, all I have to do is to find a nice clear
display box to show it off.

I am not sure but even the canopy have HUDs!

A Closer look
Now, lets examine the toy more closely. I thinks its a combination of clear (resin?) parts and vinyl rubber, with the letter being not very long lasting. I have this fear as they are apt to disintegrate after some time and more importantly, the clear parts tend to yellow. And so, what can I do? Of course the natural response would be to store it a container and keep it away from daylight 9source of UV).

But the other side of me is itching to re-cast them into clear parts, something which I have though about (resin casting, I mean) but have never done it before. The closest was in '93 using plaster. I got hold of a Horizon Terminator (Arnold Swarzenegger) vinyl model, and cast his face. It was nice but at that time, the only casting material available to me was Plaster of Paris. When I tried resin, well, it failed miserably, turning out to be The Stickynator instead.

So, as you can see, most of the parts are clear.
However, some of the material is not plastic
but clear rubbery stuff. This would be nice if
I could recast them all in clear plastic.

They painted over the clear parts to give it a
solid presentation.

And as far s the console goes, the front is made
of clear stuff painted over and glued to a solid
vinyl. So, why am I obsessed with making the
items all clear? Apart from making them last
longer, it can be lit up! I mean, imagine how
the cockpit would look like if it is lit up. Exactly.

Oh, and if you look closely at the helmet, its
just a clear part and there is no Roy Fokker
in there.

Here is another look at the Pilot seat. Here, roy
does not look too crouched but you can see him
craning his neck. However, if you put him back
into the cockpit, its a different story.

And yes, the whole toy is 1/32 scale. I
compared it with Moebius's Viper pilot
which was incidentally, 1/32.

The ULTM 4753 Auto Timer

OK, I am bored. And tired from all the programming. So, I decided to refresh my mind by exploring the "Turbo timer" I got yesterday. For RM50.00, this device is a bargain and its wiring harness is complete. After looking for more information from the Internet, this device is amazing!

Basically, what is does is to switch off the car engine after letting it idle for a preset time. For actual cars with a turbo system installed, after nice drive, they need to let the engine run to 'cool' everything down naturally. You cannot switch the engine off just like that as everything is still hot. Personally, this is one of the problems which I do not accept when it came to having a turbo system, apart from costly maintenance, that it.

Anyway, how this timer works is short of amazing. You have to do things in sequence before the time starts. For example, you have to engage the handbrakes before turning the ignition key off or something before the timer starts the countdown. Even the relays are working. But if you connect the sensor wires correctly, you can have a timer in perfect working condition. This is good news for some cash-strapped bad guys.

And so, after connecting the timer briefly,
the whole circuit works. But of course, this
was not the main purpose I got it. No, sir.

My main attraction was with the plastic
casing that came with it. Its the design
that I loved.

Or to be more exact, the pivoting front
fascia. Oh, and if you look carefully, the
unit actually has three buttons but here,
the other two metal buttons are missing.

Taking the whole unit apart, this is the main circuit
board which housed all the necessary electronics to
make the whole thing work. The connector ribbons
fro the motherboard to the display is necessary as
this is the are where the unit pivots up and down.

And so, taking a few LEDs and connecting them
to a makeshift board, my idea is starting to form...

Going to Kepong 18092010

Yep. Spending the whole day with my Dad in Kepong, to be exact. It all started when I was about to go out for my weekly Saturday Pasar Road trips when my Dad told me about the accident on his car. He did not see some wood jutting out while parking on a spot to pick Kristine and Kaelynn from school. And so, it resulted in a cracked side lamp. I know its part of my fault and so, we decided to go to Kepong to source out a new lamp unit.

(How is it my fault? See, you first meet a girl, then you get married.........)

Luckily, the damage was only up to the lens cover
which can be easily replaced. Provided we can go
find one, that is. But for the gouged bumper, there
is nothing much we can do but to get it replaced.
Which, to us, is not an option.

At one of the cut-up shops, we located the
it. And for RM50.oo, it was a bit too much
when my Dad asked me. Then again, if you
compare it with the cost of an original one
plus the time waiting for them to get it or
order it, the price just does not seem to be
too expensive at all. Or maybe its just me.

I spotted one of this thing and wanted one because
of its design. The guys told me, its a Turbo timer,
which I replied, "Not a problem since my car has no
Turbo". (I know that was stupid) And, so, to spare
some other motorhead the grief, I took the worse
one which had missing buttons for RM50.00 which
dad promptly paid for it before I can protest.

On the way back, I collected back an electric
motor for one, "Mr. Chin from Sabah". They
can't fix it and so, maybe I just go look for a
shop in Pasar Road and try my luck there. I
used to see a "Transformer repair shop" long
ago, and maybe, they might help. Or maybe
they might not.

Before we reached home, I detoured to Pasar Road
to get more White LEDs and some more components
as I felt that its going to be a long weekend. Since its
already lunchtime, I decided to pack some lunch as
well for the four of us since Wife and the girls are
still away.

Yes, its very important to have a good square meal.

Back home, Dad couldn't wait to repair it after
lunch and so, I let him tinker with it for a while
before I step in. I mean, if both of us could not
get it on, we'd have to go a workshop instead,
and pay more bucks.

Earlier on, I told him how to connect the lamp
as the tests have shown that the bulbs were
not affected. So, basically, you just unplug the
actual bulb from the broken unit and reattach
it to the new unit. I stepped in when dad could
not put it back together again. While he was
looking for a tool for me, I just screwed the unit
back on after I hooked it to the bumper, all done
in less than 3 minutes. ahem. In this case, I like
how the Japanese designed the unit to have a
secure mounting but using minimal screws.

Solar Sugarlove

Not sure why I bought this. I mean, for RM9.00,
it should be a bargain but after thinking about it,
this toy just sits there and swings about. No lights,
no rocking head, etc. So, why did I ever buy it?

Then again, its just me, I suppose.

Going to the Kee Palace

Sorry but for these past few days, all I could even think was my mouth ulcers. Every waking moment, its always about them because of the pain. But it also makes you adapt to the situation, for example:

1) You have to puff of your cheeks so that they do not touch your teeth.
2) You suddenly know how to speak without moving your lips
3) Sometimes you speak as if you're gritting your teeth which people would respect because they think you're trying to keep you temper while talking to them.
4) You can always show them to your customer who then pity you and give you the order. Ha ha ha.

Tonight, is different because I am going to meet my Wife and the girls at The Kee Palace. And so, it is going to be a great night as fas as I can tell because everyone would be having a great time. Except me of course. Me and my mouth ulcers......

Kristine and her new cousin. We're trying to
make sure the two girls do not affect him too
much, knowing how crazy they can get when
they're too happy.

Me being a 'special case', Wife cooked porridge and
I was even served some herbal soup. Yum yum.

The girls were eating chicken and I took this shot
because Kristine was so engrossed in it, she did
not even notice the sound she made while going
through the bones. Kruuck.... krack....

Later on, as usual, they went through
their cousin's toy chest. Here, Kaelynn
is playing with wooden frogs which is
part of some pre-school teaching aid.

When I rushed back home, it was
another dose of Vitamin-C and so
it happens, I found a Kiwi......

Whoa! What a surprise! Another dinner with
herbal soup and porridge! And so, as usual, I
whack it all and went to sleep by myself but
with a bloating stomach full of liquid.

Mouth Ulcer 2

This morning, I took two of those Vitamin-C
tablets in the hopes of eliminating those very
irritating and painful mouth ulcers. But after
5 minutes, my mouth is still painful. And just
today, its was the worst morning I have ever
woken up to. So, I went to check in the mirror

Oh, come on! Another four?!!! WTF!

I suspect that this must be the main culprit
because on the week before, I was eating
them almost every night. It did not occur to
me until I discussed with my wife. Then it
all came back to me like it happened. A few
years ago, I had the same keropok and also
ended up with mouth ulcers but at that time,
they were minimal. OK, so this crap is banned
and now, I have to look for an enemy to give
it to......

More bang for the buck

While I was coming back from visiting my customer around the Jalan Raja Laut area, I went into one of the shops and came out with enough bang to level any 2mm tall living things.

Actually, if i want to console myself, this box
is not very big at all. No, sir. Just a tiny little
itty bitty box. Yep. A small box. And I did
not drop it either.

And in that small box, there were 50 other smaller
boxes which holds the goods. They're not very big,
almost the size of a matchbox. Not very big, no sir.
But then, for RM0.36 a box, I am not complaining
if Kaelynn loves to play with them. Just that I did
not bother to count how many were there in one of
those boxes.

Mouth Ulcer

Not feeling very happy today as my mouth ulcer has worsened. It was so bad, that I could not eat or drink properly. And also, this was my first time that I had 10 ulcers. Usually, its one or just the occasional two but 10 is a nightmare. It made me cranky and puts me in the "What are you looking at, you @#$!" mood.

See? Right next to the big one in the middle, you
can see two other small ones on the sides.

Even my lips are so dry, its like scabs

At the top, there are actually two but in
this picture, you can only see one. But its
so painful every time I pick my nose........

And yea, there rest are all there, all making
life miserable for 10 whole days.

And so, its time for some cheep cheep treatment,
which is lots of Vitamin-C!

And just for more torture, I added
some ice-cream with the yogurt as
well. Yes, even eating ice-cream is
painful too.

And boy, in reality, the colour is a little
pinkish, same shade and consistency as
the stuff you throw up after eating too
much crap. And this time, all I have to
do is to drink it without affecting all the
ulcers in the mouth. Not easy, man.

The Happy before The Sad

The girls are very happy today. So happy they would involuntarily posed for me whenever I took pictures of them. Aha, but 30 minutes after this, it was a very different story.....

Both girls enjoying their lunch. And after that,
Mommy said, "Its time for hair-cut!"

You can see that Kristine was the one that
was not happy at all. This was because the
girls wanted to have long hair. Maybe this
could also be Kristine's only chance before
she goes to another school next year which
might allow long hair.