10 Days in Hong Kong

Well, that was fun. This has been something like my 5th trip to Hong Kong with my family, partly driven by the need for flight transits and partly driven by the need for Disneyland (my siblings), but the 1st time I've visited the acclaimed LEGO haven that is In's Point.

This post is going to be just a general description of my trip to Hong Kong, and will be followed by more detailed posts regarding the LEGO aspect of my vacation. Since this is a LEGO-oriented blog, i'll be skipping most parts of my trip, and just describing the parts relating to my favorite toy line.

So first off, a brief outline of my trip. Over the course of 10 days, I visited multiple LEGO-selling stores around the Kowloon area. For those of you who don't know where Kowloon is, go Google it. The first 2 days of my trip I spent at the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort (For the 5th Time in Forever), and I can't deny that I did enjoy myself. Interestingly, the Disneyland Hotel Gift Shoppe was where I spotted the first LEGO item.

In those 2 days I also visited the CityGate Outlet Mall, located in Lantau Island, which was just a short MTR Ride away from the Airport and Disneyland Resort. Here, there's a small shop that sells nothing but LEGO, similar to the Monobrand Stores we have here. The shop's name is Michael's Toys (Interestingly, it is run by a woman) and you can find more information here.

Michael's Toys has a pretty nice selection of LEGO Sets, as disorganized as it may seem. Sadly, I didn't take any pictures while I was there as we were kinda rushing for lunch.

They had an AMAZING selection of LEGO Minifigure Keychains, with pretty much every Keychain LEGO ever released. They also had some really rare sets like the UCS RS-D2, Sandcrawler, Super Star Destroyer, Maersk Line Triple E and both of the Volkswaagen Models. Because of the exchange rate, even at MSRP the sets are cheaper than what they retail for here in Singapore.

Well, I guess one good side-effect of the Occupy Central protests was that Disneyland was pretty empty with most attractions having 5-10 minute wait times at most. I heard this was because China had blocked most of the tourist Visas entering Hong Kong.

So after Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, we immediately moved into another hotel located in Kowloon. The hotel was very conveniently located in Harbor City, a 5 minute walk away from the ferry terminal, Tsim Sha Tsui MTR Station and the famous Nathan Road shopping belt. If you're wondering, it was the Marco Polo Gateway hotel and the rates and rooms were pretty good. A family of 5 was able to very comfortably squeeze into a suite, with a living area to spare!

Very very conveniently, Harbor City was also home to Toys R Us's Flagship Store in Hong Kong. They had a very nice selection of LEGO sets and displays. I could go on and on about this ONE location alone, but that would take forever. So instead, I'll be writing a separate mini-report on it.

The very day we arrived in Kowloon, we headed to In's Point that evening. For those of you who aren't familiar with the abundance of information regarding this LEGO haven, it's located right outside one of the exits of Yau Ma Tei MTR station, along Nathan Road. Even more conveniently, its situated RIGHT NEXT to a HSBC Bank in case you need to get extra Hong Kong Dollars.

Again, there will be another separate post on In's Point alone. As you can see, I am a master at the Art of Procrastination.

Well, along the way, I also visited 2 of the Brickstime stores in Hong Kong. For an introduction, Brickstime is basically Hong Kong's answer to our Bricks World or Secret Chamber mono-brand LEGO stores, complete with polybags and high prices. I didn't buy anything from any of these stores though.

ANOTHER POST WILL BE CENTERED AROUND BRICKSTIME

Thank you.

So, now to the important part. As you may have noticed, I have not mentioned anything regarding the LEGO I had bought this trip. I have to admit, this is one of the most LEGO-fruitful trips ever, save for my June Trip to Boston, MA and my 2012 Trip to Orlando, FL which got me interested in LEGO all over again,

This trip however, saw me spending the most on LEGO, compared to what I had bought in the previous vacations. According to my parents' calculations, WE had spent a whopping SGD $3000~ on LEGO alone, more than enough to cover our accommodation or our airfare.

And yes, I said WE. Even my sister and parents are hooked on LEGO now. Yay for me I guess?

So here it is:

All the LEGO we bought from Hong Kong.

For your information, we had bought 2 10221 UCS Super Star Destroyers, 1 10212 UCS Imperial Shuttle, 1 9492 TIE Fighter and a bunch of Parts and Polybags.

Unfortunately for me, the UCS Super Star Destroyer and the UCS Imperial Shuttle are for my parents. This means I won't be able to build them anytime in the foreseeable future should my parents decide to sell them.

That leaves me with the TIE Fighter, Clone Turbo Tank Microfighter, Planets Tantive IV, Polybags and some Parts. 

Oh, and I also got 3 minifigures and a LEGO minifigure watch for my brother.

Majority of these purchases were from In's Point and Toys R Us, so I'll be going into detail about the prices in their respective posts. (Yay PROCRASTINATION)

So yeah, thats all for this post. Have a great Holiday!

Some updates, and Purchases

Hi All! Sorry for the long gap between posts! This is just a quick update on some stuff I'm gonna be doing in the near future.

This weekend, I'll be heading up to LEGOLand Malaysia for some family fun and shopping! I'll probably do some trip review/guide thing, as best as my phone's camera can manage. For those of you who've already been there, I'd appreciate ANY tips you may have regarding LLM! Just leave a comment below!

Next Thursday, I'll be flying up to Hong Kong and visiting In's Point for the very first time! So I'll be doing the trip review thingy, and maybe writing up a beginner's guide to shopping there for newcomers like me. Any tips? Do leave a comment!

Also, I've just come back from Malacca this Monday and I've got some really nice purchases!

As you can see, these are from Parkson's Departmental Store in Malaysia. They're currently running a pretty good 50% off sale on LEGO that's ending this month. I managed to get the entire Series 3 of the Retired Planets Series!

Also they're having some sort of Gift-With-Purchase promotion.

Lastly, this weekend is Black Friday/Cyber Monday!

For those of you who don't' know, Black Friday and Cyber Monday refer to the days around Thanksgiving in the USA, and are well known for the major sales. Last couple of years, LEGO.com had really nice clearance on sets (50% off or more) as well as TRIPLE VIP Points! Other retailers like Amazon are also in on it, so do take this chance to shop around! Better have it than regret it!

Brief Shopping Trip at LEGOLAND Malaysia

So this weekend, my family and I decided to head up to LEGOLAND Malaysia in Johor for a little family fun with some friends. On the upside, it was a really fun experience with all the rides and miniland displays with some pretty cheap food given the current exchange rate of SGD to MYR. On the downside, shopping was rather disappointing in terms of pricing and variety. 

This post will be covering only SOME of the stuff at LEGOLAND, largely because I forgot to take pictures. Sorry!!

So the first place I went when we got into the park was the Star Wars Miniland! Me being a Star Wars fan, I just couldn't miss this awesome attraction with dozens of model displays equipped with cinematic lighting and effects. 

Sorry for the poor photo quality! What I found good about this attraction was that it was entirely indoors, even the gift shop and queue area! Making it perfect for the current rainy season here in South East Asia. The gift shop had a very good variety of Star Wars sets, and is one of the few shops in the park where you can find Star Wars themed sets and merchandise other than The Big Shop. I bought a nice Star Wars magnet set with removable Minifigures to add to my collection, for just SGD $9! Everything else was about the same price as in Singapore.

If you're into UCS and larger sets, the shop has a good assortment of UCS Sets like the B-Wing, Death Star II, Red-Five X-Wing, Ewok Village and the Sandcrawler. These seem to be the only sets that are actually cheaper than the RRP in Singapore!

In the rest of the park, there are small shops spread out in each themed land each offering their own merchandise and sets. For example, the shops in the Castle/Medieval Themed Land stocks Friends, Castle, Lord of the Rings/Hobbit and Seasonal merchandise, while the Adventure Themed Land stocks CREATOR, Chima, Ninjago and for some reason, Galaxy Squad. The Adventurer's Depot at the Adventure-Themed land also serves as a clearance/sale centre, where retiring sets from themes like Galaxy Squad are sold at a slight discount. Do take the opportunity to go to the shops in every Land to buy anything you want! This is because while The Big Shop does have a wide variety of all themes, they don't stock all the sets and items from every theme. For example, the Arctic Sets and Polar Accessory Packs were widely available in the LEGO City Land, but were largely unavailable in The Big Shop. The same goes for the Star Wars UCS Sets. So do take the chance to buy whatever you want, to save time on backtracking later on!

These are the Seasonal Polybags that were available when I visited, I could only find them at the King's Market at the Castle/Medieval Themed Land.

This was the the Mini Market, near the entrance/exit of the park. Pretty good deal at roughly SGD $4 each, they make very good stocking stuffers or souvenir gifts. You can find them pretty much everywhere in the park, except the Star Wars Miniland of course.

The Big Shop from the Outside.

The Star Wars Collection. Pretty good variety, but not as much as at the Miniland. Got a couple of Toys R Us exclusives and UCS Sets, a lot more at the Miniland though. Not much in terms of LEGO Star Wars Apparel either.

More stuff, City and Minecraft. Not much City Arctic here in The Big Shop though. Much more available at the LEGO-City Themed Land.

These were available at the Cashier for RM 29.90 each. Not a bad deal as they're quite rare here in SG and for only SGD $12 each. These were only available at The Big Shop, so do check them out!

More LEGO CREATOR Eagle Polybags and Brick Separators.

The Brick Shop. This is where the Pick-A-Brick and Build-A-Minifigure was. PAB was RM 45 for 100g, and BAM was RM 25 for 3 if I'm not wrong. Pretty good deal, but the shop was rather lacking in variety of parts for both the PAB and BAM.

1 of 2 PAB walls. Good array of colors and parts, only problem was that you either can't find the part or color, or you find the right part in the wrong color! Didn't buy anything from here, price-wise isn't very cheap either. Hopefully the new LEGO Certified Stores in Singapore will be better!

So that's all for this quick review/guide! I'd definitely like to visit again as this park is perfect for young ages. Some rides and roller coaster even had 2 sub-rides of different heights/speeds/difficulty for the younger ones and older ones. Definitely a place to visit with friends!

I'll be flying up to Hong Kong this Thursday and visiting the fabled In's Point while I'm there. Do check back some time near Christmas for a guide/review of that too! I'll be taking much more pictures and making sure it's way more comprehensive than this one!

LEGO Store Opening in Singapore!

Great news! According to local LEGO Sites like Brickfinder on Facebook, there seems to be a LEGO-Certified store opening soon right here in Singapore!

This hasn't been confirmed officially by LEGO, but there has been an exact store address provided. Currently, it is to be at Suntec City somewhere on the 3rd Floor.

Some additional details include numerous product displays like in any other LEGO Brand Store overseas, and our very own Pick-A-Brick wall!

Also, Singapore will finally see Exclusive products released here at the same time as te US/UK/EU regions! Great news for all of us LEGO Collectors!

There's also some talk of an exclusive set giveaway to celebrate its opening on the 29th November 2014, so for all of us LEGO Fans, we'll be sure to mark that date on our calendar!

For me, it's sad to say I won't be going down for the opening because I'll be at LEGOLAND Malaysia instead. I guess it's quite and unusual dilemma! Do expect to see a trip report on the shopping at LLM!

Quick Update

Hi all! Sorry for the lack of posts recently, it's just that I've been really busy with some personal things, both LEGO and Non-LEGO.

So recently I've been working on some shelving, trying to display all my LEGO sets and minimize the space they take up in the cupboard. Hence, I've had a tough time making stable supports for each and every vehicle or set. Currently I'm making simple pillars of white bricks, on bases of round 6-6 plates. If any of you readers have any plates to let go, do let me know!

Also, I'll be visiting LEGOLAND Malaysia in a few weeks, as well as Hong Kong in December! I'm really excited for these, and I'll definitely take lots of photos and do lots of shopping. Maybe I'll do some photo reviews, but don't expect really hi-res pics from my iPhone's Camera.

Lastly, my Set Reviews are currently put on hold. This is because all of them are pretty much in a mess right now due to my shelves/display cabinets, and I have no idea which sets come with what, or where they are for that matter.

So that's all for this update! Have a great weekend!