Okay just realised that McDonald's is spelt this way. I previously spelt all of them in the usual Scottish way of "MacDonald's" but they have all now been corrected. Onwards now to the Witch Kitty!
So this is my second one and is the McDelivery version. What was so special about this is? Well it can only be obtained by doing a McDelivery order. Same packaging as the first one so that is great you are assured of getting a set in good condition (unless the McDelivery guy crushed it on his way...then that really unfortunate...for the McDelivery guy!). The cover art is great but somehow it looks like Witch Kitty is using the broom to clean up McDonald's...
At the back cover art, you can see it does not have the story like the first one, instead it pimps the McDelivery SG phone number and URL. Also we can see the under receivership Singapore Flyer lookalike thus probably making this a special Singapore edition.
Once again this comes in a thick Harry Potter book-like box.
Yup, same format as the first one, except this is red in colour.
The Witch Kitty has a hat lopsided on her head and carries a broom. Actually when I first saw it, it looked like a wok spatual instead of a broom. My thoughts on the colour scheme chosen was should not Witch Kitty be in green, that would be so cool. Also why red? Should she not be decked out all in black and with a purple belt? This colour seems more in line with a traditional Hello Kitty doll.
On the back, she looks just as plain like the other one.
At that point, I was Skyping with a friend and took out my other Hello Kitty dolls from a previous set. Unfortunately for that set, I had one missing, but I do not think I am going to be obsessed enough to chase it down. But hey you never know I might...Anyway when I took them out I realised that they are of the same size. Hey how is that for backwards compatibility.
Here is the cover
art for the box to end this review. I very much look forward to the next one!
Here are the links to the other Kitty Dolls in this series
Wizard of Oz Hello Kitty
Little Red Riding Hood Hello Kitty*
Frog Prince Hello Kitty*
The Ugly Duckling Hello Kitty*
The Singing Bone Hello Kitty*
The Wisdom Owl*
*these are released after this one
Here is a link to a set from last year's series
McDonald's Hello Kitty Series 2012
Earlier I was getting ready to do McDelivery and this was what I got when I logged in....
Yeah that is right, due to the Hello Kitty craze phenomenon, MacDonald's McDelivery has been swamped and has gone DOWN! Oh the horror! I hope that I will still be able to get the Witch Kitty by calling their hotline later....
Stay tuned...
[Update 31st May 2013]: They have improved their graphic on the error message...but I cannot call through...
[Update 1430 : 31st May 2013] It is 1430hrs and I am still unable to call through. The Hello Kitty fans are obviously too powerful. Might have to try another day or something, that jingle of MacDs is killing me..."i'm lovin' it"...
[Update 1330 : 31st May 2013] Finally got through and ordered the fillet o fish meals to buy the Witch Kitty. Yeah going to review it later tonight!
Click below to read the post on each of the doll
Wizard of Oz Hello Kitty
McDelivery Hello Kitty
Little Red Riding Hood Hello Kitty
The Ugly Duckling Hello Kitty
The Singing Bone Hello Kitty
Yes it is 30th May and it has begun...
We got the first of hopefully all 6 of these dolls from the McDonald's promotion. This is the Wizard of Oz one. To protect it, it is sealed in a polybag. This ensures you get a very clean set indeed.
The cover art that greets you before you open the box is really top notch. Minimalistic yet beautiful in its own way. No like today's 3D overloaded cartoons.
The back looks equally nice.
In line with the fairy tale theme, the box packaging artwork is made to look like a thick Harry Potter book.
The doll is housed in the box with a cover and the doll is displayed behind a transparent plastic sheet with some decorations. As this is the lion in the Wizard of Oz the pages are orange in colour.
Hello Kitty is wearing a lion suit with "mabok" eyes if you look carefully. The whiskers peek out slightly from the sides.
Back view, you can see the hood is furry, other than that it is quite plain.
It was at this point that my sister said something about the back part looked familiar... yeah the furry head part is similar to Care Bear cousin Brave Heart Lion!
To end off, here is the cover art for the box which looks very nice. In fact I think parents can scan this, remove all the coloured areas and make it a colouring activity for their kids. Stay tuned for the next instalment (if and when I get it) !
Here are the links to the other Kitty Dolls in this series
McDelivery Hello Kitty*
Little Red Riding Hood Hello Kitty*
The Frog Prince Hello Kitty*
The Ugly Duckling Hello Kitty*
The Singing Bone Hello Kitty*
The Wisdom Owl*
*these are released after this one
Here is a link to a set from last year's series
McDonald's Hello Kitty Series 2012
Okay McDonald's is at it again. The Hello Kitty dolls promotion is on starting from today. This time it is called Fairy Tales Collection and features Hello Kitty in different supposedly famous fairy tales.
One of the dolls (Witch) will only be available by McDelivery and based on McDonald's Facebook so far, it seem their delivery service is being swamped.
This time, there is a yellow one and a black on thrown into the mix of the usually white Hello Kitties. Ethnicity for Hello Kitties perhaps? Like all previous promotions, they are all available for a week. For me I look forward most to the black one! Collect them all!
Click below to read the post on each of the doll
Wizard of Oz Hello Kitty
McDelivery Hello Kitty
Little Red Riding Hood Hello Kitty
The Frog Prince Hello Kitty
The Ugly Duckling Hello Kitty
The Singing Bone Hello Kitty
Yeah, yesterday my Dad suddenly wanted to try out the Circle Line to Bayfront MRT. He wanted to go to MBS to see a new exhibition at the ArtScience Museum, Marina Bay Sands. The exhibition Mummy: Secrets of the Tomb is a collaboration with the world famous British Museum. For Singapore Citizens or Residents, it will cost an adult SGD13.00.
So what do you get for imparting that bit of cash over? Well for starters, the exhibition starts AFTER you watch a short film. This film features a long dead star called Nesperennub. Well his mummy that is. The show is narrated by the famous Patrick Steward of Star Trek: The Next Generation fame. The British Actor definitely enhances the experience for me! Oh and the show is a 3D one. This is one of the few movies that probably need to be in 3D as they show the mummy through a series of CT scans. As a souvenir, we could take home the 3D glasses. Pretty stylish I must say.
The seats are like temporary construction seats made of plastic and mounted on metal frames. Not too comfortable but the show is not long enough to cause discomfort. Thankfully we went down on a weekday so there was no crowd or crazy noisy kids to ruin a good film.
Once over, we went to look at the exhibits. What amazed me are how well preserved some of the artefacts are. I was the details are incredible and the colours are quite vibrant especially for those in blue. My guess is the colours were restored but the materials the blue colour were made from lapis lazuli which I believe holds its intense colour well. Overall a lot to see and read. There is an embalming workshop to explain the process which was pretty good and well explained based on my recollections of a documentary I watched in the past. The nice part is the explanation of the cartonnage which I learnt more about in addition to the embalming process.
At the end of the exhibition, there is of course the merchandise shop. In there are nice trinkets but the one that stood out most for me was the perfume which was called Egyptian Lotus and was available for SGD60.00 but I did not get it though. We left sometime mid afternoon and did not have stop for a break at MBS as things were a bit pricey.
Overall a nice educational experience and worth the SDG13.00. Having Patrick Stewart narrate to me was a bonus.
Review - Batch 4
Last up bringing up series 10 are Baseball Fielder, Trendsettter, Decorator and Motorcycle Mechanic.
The Baseball Fielder has a new hand piece and is a good complement to the series 3 Baseball Player. Nothing very outstanding from him.
On the other hand the Trendsetter has a more redeeming quality. This minifigure has a new poodle and a smartphone tile piece. The new hair piece is so-so.
Second last in this set is the Decorator. One of my favourites in this set, it features a hard working guy with a new paint roller handle and a new handle for the paint bucket. Overall, a very nice minifigure to have and it will blend in well with any Lego City set. In fact, add him to the painter working in the Pet Shop!
The last in this set is the Motorcycle Mechanic, he fights with Skydiver for the last spot in my personal opinion of the worse character in series 10. He comes in a close second last. Nothing that outstanding about him but yes he looks like a hooligan.
Overall, I do think this set is a mixed bag. The ones I like most were the Medusa, Roman Commander, Warrior Woman, Sea Captain and Decorator. They are look great and I believe will liven up any set.
The ones I found the worst were Skydiver, Baseball Fielder and Motorcycle Mechanic. Those are just fillers.
As for the rest, they are so-so, not that they are bad but that they are not that outstanding. Overall, series 10 is a mixed bag that results in it being somewhat average. My recommendation is, get the characters that you want, the rest can be skipped. Unless you like something like 14 of them, then perhaps it is worth buying the whole set on eBay.
Back: Batch 3
Review - Batch 3
Coming up next, Sea Captain, Sad Clown, Paintball Player and Revolutionary Soldier.
The Sea Captain has got to be easily the guy with the coolest or the second coolest pet in the entire minifigure product line. The seagull. I know some would think "meh" but really it is quite a well done animal made up of the rubbery plastic. His cap also has that nice gold line cross the rim and overall the sea captain's uniform looks very spiffy.
Next up is the Sad Clown. It comes with a new conical hat that probably looks great for birthday themes as well. The sad face is in the same style of the series 2 mime. It actually looks more like someone in a pyjamas that does not want to go to sleep. Overall a so-so character to series 10.
The Paintball Player comes with a new helmet piece but unfortunately that printed ink splat makes it unsuitable for MOCs. The paintball gun has all the main characteristics of a really one with the the compressed air canister and the pellet container. The visor is fixed and cannot be flipped up. His body has green splats in front and orange one behind. Obviously a victim of friendly fire.
The last in this round up is the Revolutionary Soldier, whose hair piece makes him look like a George Washington wannabe. Printing front and back is very similar in style to the Pirates line so I think this guy would fit right in well with those sets.
Next: Batch 4
Back: Batch 2
Review - Batch 2
Onto the next 4, they are the Tomahawk Warrior, Skydiver, Bumblebee Girl and Grandpa.
Tomahawk Warrior carries with it a new tomahawk piece though the Lone Ranger line features it as well with Tonto. I guess the new piece novelty in this case disappeared very quickly for this. The warrior features some nice upper arm tattoos as well. Other htan that, this character does not feature anything that special about him.
Now comes probably the most disappointing amongst all the 16 minifigures in series 10. Other than the parachute bag, there is no other new piece in this guy. I think this minifigure manages to take a slightly lower notch in level of disappointment than the Tomahawk Warrior.
Next to make up for the lacklustre duo before is the Bumblebee Girl. It features a new headpiece and a pot with printed honey and bee on it. This character reminds me of Singapore's Teamy, the productivity bee. Find out more about him here. I think this Lego minifigure looks better and is quite popular with the ladies like Lady Liberty from series 6.
Last in this batch is Grandpa. It features a new headpiece suitable for anyone wanting to make a nursing home MOC! And with it comes a printed 2x2 tile piece as the Old Times newspaper. This character would definitely be suitable to put into almost any Lego City set.
Next: Batch 3
Back: Batch 1
Prologue
Together with 2 of my other friends, we shared a box of minifigures series 10. I ran around Singapore Toys R Us to get 2 sets of rares so that we could have 4 complete sets in total. The last set we will try to pimp it off on eBay. Finally today I got around to opening up some of the series 10 minifigures to put into the Daiso 2 dollar display cases. Let us look through the first 4! They are the Librarian, Medusa, Roman Commander and Warrior Woman.
Review - Batch 1
First up we have the Librarian. The special part about her is the cup with the printed "Shhh!" and the printed book "Oranges and Peaches". The origin of the book title might referenced to possibly an urban myth as found here but is nevertheless and hilarious story. The hair piece might be new but meh, we have got so many long haired maidens at this point. Also her legs feature some side printing.
The Medusa is the largest of the lot in terms of sheer size. Even when still in its sealed bag, it is quite visibly prominent, as a result, it is unlikely that a person can find it easily down in Toys R Us unless the box is newly opened. As such one can find it prices on eBay the highest among all the rares in series 10. The tail piece is made of a rubbery material which is wise since the tail is rather long and thin, plus the head piece too is made from the same material. It is one of the more interesting minifigure possibly due to the rare sand green colour that the torso, arms and head.
For the Roman Commander, from his side profile you can see the helmet is the same as the Series 6 Roman Soldier but in a darker shade of grey and it includes a beautiful plume which on various web images shows it either place this way or rotated 90 degrees (transverse wise to the body centre line). It seems historically perhaps people wore it both ways? The chest features a printed clasp with a wolf head no doubt in reference to the legend and myth of the city Rome where Romulus and Remus, the twins who were suckled by a she-wolf. One can read more on Wikipedia here. The cape is a wonderful dark red and really befits a Roman Commander. Finally he is equipped with a galdius or short sword. I think the only criticism I have would be why this character did not get a scuta (singular) or shield as well like the Roman Soldier. Other than that I would say this is one of my favourite minifigure in series 10.
Finally in this batch of 4, we have the Warrior Woman. I guess this is in reference to the Amazonian legend of a female warrior race. She features a very nicely printed round shield. The spear tip comes in pearl gold this time instead of the silver one. She also features some side printing on her legs.
Okay that is it for now until my next instalment on the next batch of 4, stay tuned.
Next: Batch 2
