"That which does not kill me makes me cuter." - tele Nietzsche
Friday, October 26, 2007
This is 12-inch Mandarin Spawn. It was the very first toy I bought with my own money, the first that started off my toy collection. I bought it right after my ORD. My comprehensive toy records say I got it on 21 May 2001. I vaguely remember... 19 May 2001 was my actual ORD date and it was a Saturday. But I had to go back to camp the following Monday, the 21st, to clear some outstanding paperwork, maybe collect some certs or someone wasn't around on the previous Saturday to get things done. Maybe it was some off day. After clearing everything that Monday, I zipped down to Toys 'R' Us at Yishun NorthPoint and picked up this menacing 12-inch mother. Yes, I think it was something like that.
I wasn't aware toy-makers were already churning out such great-looking toys then, only knew about the 12-inch Mandarin Spawn when I tagged along with some campmates to a toy flea market some time before my ORD, a place I later came to realize was the Clarke Quay Sunday flea market (which has now moved to China Square Central). My campmates picked it up and ogled at it, thinking whether to get it or not, which they did not, which I eventually did.
So 2001 was a very memorable year, and not just for my toy empire. 2001 marked leaving army and entering the U. 2001 marked listening to Glay and X Japan, dabbling with IRC and coming to know the "J-Rock & Cosplay group" of friends and fiends. Therefore, 2001 marked the start of the stone age so to speak.. Eh leh! Stone age pula! *Smack forehead* Rock empire lah bodoh, when things started to rock (like babies in the cradle)!
Five years later, McFarlane released the 12-inch Mandarin Spawn 2. So he was conscripted into my army just last year. Because he looks so "gold & red", I've been calling him the "门神" ("Door God"). I've assigned him permanent guard duty on the table close to the house entrance. 12-inch Mandarin Spawn 2 - Before
If you are fanatic enough to view the all the 31 sequenced visions (if indeed you do, then surely you must be a Soul Reaver / Legacy of Kain fan or at the very least one who has played the game/s) as I was in weaving them, here is my humble B-grade tribute remake of the intro to the PC game Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. Peruse them in their natural order, if your patience is abundant, and let your destiny unravel...
If you have beheld all my re-imaginings above, congratulations! For your transgression, you have earned a new kind of reward... The actual intro on YouTube! To all fledglings of Raziel & Kain, I bid you the heartiest in your reminiscence! Salute your clan in their name, and exhort to have them immortalised in your remembrance! (yo tabe... that's going too far...)
