On Saturday (21st Sep) after having lunch with my sister I visited the 7 Eleven near her place. There again I saw the all familiar green box of Series 11 Collectable Minifigures!. Now that really caught my attention, as I realised it meant that pretty much all the 7 Eleven franchise stalls should then be bringing them in! This really triggered my crazy brain of mine to start searching for Island Warriors and Scarecrows in a Very Bad way. Below shows you the Damage done...
I visited a total of 14 7 Elevens on Saturday. On Sunday, re-visited one the one near my sister's place in Bedok and a new one nearby.
Here is the blow by blow account of the different stores I visited. One common interesting theme that I noticed was that most of the stores were manned by non-Chinese staff and quite a number of them were definitely not Singaporeans. They also kept asking me "Sir, this is $4.90 per packet, is it okay?", which I found to be pretty strange and one explanation my wife had was that for such a small packet with light, cheap plastic inside, it was a pretty expensive thing sold in the store.
Anyways, here is my little journal entry below on each 7 Eleven I visited and what I could remember of each store, its staff and any other interesting stuff.
Store 1: Blk.18 Bedok South Road #01-65 Singapore 460018
This is the one next to the hawker centre near my sister's place. The staff was okay with me feeling all the packets as I needed to find an initial Island Warrior and Scarecrow to observe the bump codes. A kid came up to me and asked what I was looking for which I pointed to the Island Warrior. He then suddenly took one packet to start feeling it which made me think "oh no" a competitor! But later said he was looking for Gingerbread Man, phew so no competition there. He suddenly put the packet down and ran out of the store, never to return. Strange kid indeed but situation normal for me and I carried on feeling for what I wanted. At the same time, my good friend David mentioned to me that he saw Series 11 at a Shell Station, so I decided to check out the one near my home later.
Store 2: 920 New Upper Changi Road #01-01 Tanah Merah MRT Station Singapore 467356
I rushed off after finding 2 Island Warrior and 1 Scarecrow to Tanah Merah MRT station to close one of my eBay deals. Sadly I was late but the guy kind of forgave me for it, though he did mention me being late in the feedback section which was fair. After that I raided the 7 Eleven there and netted 2 Island Warriors and 2 Scarecrows.
Store 3: No.331 Bedok Road (Shell Simpang Bedok) Singapore 469504
We took a bus up to the Shell station which was considered a transfer so it cost only cents for that ride. Reaching the Shell station then I saw why they would sell Series 11. All Shell station convenience stores are actually 7 Elevens. Proceeded to do my thing and grab what I wanted. A kid came up and grabbed a packet asking his mom if he could buy one which his soldier mum said "NO! We got one already yesterday for you!". The daughter came up asking for something else, which the soldier mum promptly said NO again. The 2 kids kept asking her for things and she kept NO-ing them. Anyways I got my stuff and quickly crossed the road opposite to hit the next 7 Eleven store.
Store 4: No.346 Bedok Road Bedok Shopping Complex Singapore 469532
The nice malay lady was not sure of what I was talking about but once she checked her store, she found a fresh unopened box for me to grab my stuff. Very nice of her to make the effort to check the store. She also let me know that it was only during the wee hours of the morning that the stock had arrived. That fueled me to run around all the 7 Elevens nearby to grab all that I wanted.
Store 5: No.2 Simei Street 3 #01-05 Changi General Hospital Singapore 529889
Took a bus up to CGH and just grabbed and went. Quick and fast operation and proceeded to the next one.
Store 6: No.30 Simei Street 3 #01-05/06/07 Simei MRT Station Singapore 529888
The Indian guy here was quite friendly and we bought a slurpee as I was getting quite thirsty. By now we were getting quite good at recognising the bump codes, in fact Michelle got better than me at this. After paying for our stuff, we left toward the next store in Simei. Halfway there, we realised we had left the umbrella and I went back to get it while Michelle went ahead to check out the next store.
Store 7: Blk.225 Simei Street 4 #01-68 Singapore 520225
The guy manning the store looked like he had a flu and I hoped I would not get it. Michelle managed to spot most of the minifigs we wanted by the time I got there, so it was also a quick in and out operation.
Store 8: Blk 156 Simei Road #01-330 Singapore 520156
One of the few stores manned by more than one person, the 2 Filipinos here had just started displaying the goods for a short while before I came. So once again I was the first customer. That really makes my day as I know for sure what I would be getting.
Store 9: Blk.201E Tampines Street 23 #01-100 Singapore 527201
Took a bus up to this store but unfortunately, they claimed that they had not received any stock. That made me think that perhaps not all 7 Elevens had received Series 11 and maybe I had exhausted the list of nearby 7 Elevens with the minifigs.
Store 10: Blk.282 Tampines Street 22 #01-302 Singapore 520282
I entered this store as they were doing a changeover of shift. The Malay lady who was going off shift was being rushed by her husband to go home. Was very jovial and friendly. Sadly for me, someone had gotten a step ahead of me and was took the 2 Island Warrior away, leaving me only the Scarecrow. That got me a little worried at that point as I wondered if my other visits would end up without anymore of the Island Warriors.
Store 11: 139 Tampines Street 11, Singapore 521139
Almost missed this store as initially the Google map location was really quite far off. The Indian lady tried to upsell me some other snacks but I was solely focused and got my stuff and left.
Store 12: Blk.164 Tampines Street 12 #01-297 Singapore 521164
This store had a guy who manned the store with a distant look. Man did he look somewhat out of it. Here Michelle discovered that the Nachos there was cheaper than other shops. The only other outlet that was just as cheap was the Bedok one near my sister's place.
Store 13: 2 Tampines Central 5 #01-17/18 Century Square Singapore 529509
Somehow this store had closed down and the other 7 Eleven near the Tampines MRT was not selling any minifigs. So I quicly proceeded to the last store of the day.
Store 14: No.5 Tampines Central 6 #01-20/21 Telepark Singapore 529482
The last store for the day was really fantastic, it was in the middle of renovation but was still open for business. The lady there was very helpful and opened up a fresh box for me to choose. She even encouraged me to get the whole box which I most definitely did not. Workers were coming in and out and her goods were all piled around the floor and the renovation meant quite a bit of the shelves were removed. Even though she was still open for business, I did wonder if it was legal to do so with all the dust floating around. With this last trip I went home a happy man with a big massive haul.
Store 15: Blk.18 Bedok South Road #01-65 Singapore 460018
On Sunday whilst having lunch with my sister, I decided to have lunch so after that, I decided to pop by that shop again and grabbed the last Scarecrow to add to my collection.
Store 16: Blk.25 New Upper Changi Road #01-626 Singapore 462025
As we were heading to Bedok Point, we passed by one more 7 Eleven so I JUST HAD TO DO grab the good stuff.
7 Eleven has over 500 stores and it is really great that I was fortunate enough to grab all of what I wanted in such great quantities. A lot of luck as I happened to go out exactly on the day the minifigs were delivered all over the island. Right place right time indeed. Now onto eBay where I will try to sell some of my catch!
As a final update, on Monday when I was headed off to work, Kallang MRT has a 7 Eleven too, so I just had to!
