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This afternoon, I just went to this so called Toy Fair, or in long, ‘Toy & Anime Convention‘ at tHe Spring. Toy Fair starts at today (21st August 2008) until 24th August (finale day for Kuching Festival 2008 and Beijing 2008 Olympic Games). This event is organised by Wonder Toys. There will have some rare and limited edition toys or figures display. Sadly, I didn’t spot any cosplay around. Probably this Saturday will have cosplay, such as Naruto.

This is a small happening event in tHe Spring. There is also a section which sells ton of soft toys. Be sure to bring your girlfriends around. And as for the guys, remember to bring more bucks. 

Some imported toys are selling as well, such as Mattel and Bandai products, big toy companies. Toy lovers must not miss it. 

There is a section that displaying some limited edition of figures such as Star Wars, and Storm Trooper .

Lastly, don’t forget about the popular Bandai Gundam(s) exhibition. It is located at the main entrance of tHe Spring. 

This Gundam figure is the most attractive (my opinion). Z.A.F.T GUNDAM (adapted from Gundam Seed anime).

Lately I have noticed that a lot of forumers have similar manga avatars but with different style. Everyone seems to be a ‘pro’ in drawing own manga avatar. FaceYourManga.com lets you easiest to create your own style of manga in just a few clicks. 

This is using flash technology. It has a various of style to customize your own manga avatar. It is free of charge but in a low quality resolution. For high resolution, you have to pay the fee. After you have finish done your customization, you will have to give your email in order to receive your own manga avatar. 

Here’s mine. 

What are Minimoys? They are tiny and small people, which are roughly 2.5mm size.

Title: Arthur and the Minimoys/Arthur and the Invisibles/Arthur et les Minimoys 
Year: Fall 2006 
Directed: Luc Besson
Genre: Animation/Fantasy/Family
Runtime: 103 mins / 94 min
Country: France
Language: English/French

Cast:
Freddie Highmore (Arthur), Madonna (Voice of Princess Selenia), Mia Farrow (Granny), Robert De Niro (Voice of the King)

Synopsis / Plot:
Ten-year-old Arthur, is trying to save his grandfather’s house from being demolished, goes looking for some hidden treasure (ruby stones) in the land of the Minimoys. He discovers a tiny kingdom of elf-like creatures (Minimoys) in the back garden, living in harmony with nature. Once inside, he’s transformed into a Minimoys and joins forces with the lovely princess Selenia to defeat the evil M, who-must-not-be-named. 

Review:
This movie is quite an old movie, end of 2006 in France. As you can see, this movie is not from popular production, such as Disney or Dreamwork. It is based on a french children novel, ‘Arthur et les Minimoys’ by Luc Besson in 2002. Luc Besson is also the director of this movie. It is part of 3D animated when Arthur steps into the world of Minimoys and part of live action movie. Based on wiki, this movie is the most expensive in French production.

I have just watch it recently. Malaysia Cinema is not showing this. So, you have to watch on DVD version. I’m quite disappointed and surprising  that the DVD edition is a censored version in the USA. The kissing scenes of Arthur and Princess Selenia have been trimmed. Why? And I don’t see those Disney production movies censored those scenes in their DVD edition. This movie is a fantasy, laughable and beautiful children movie, with the combination of 3D CGI and real action. It is very recommended to watch with your family. I find this is much better compare to ‘The Journey to the center of the Earth‘ (2008).

Pro:

• Few laughable scenes
• Beautiful and stunning 3D animation characters and environment
• Fantasy, magical story-line.
• Well acting in the real action scenes 

Con:

• Illogical scenes such as Arthur (in Minimoys world) becomes extremely good swordsman, whereas he is just a normal kid in real life.
• A bit strange when the voice of Princess Selenia is Madonna and trying to seduce Arthur (10 year old kid). 

Yesterday I had just went to Kuching Festival 2008. What is this Kuching Festival? It is the Kuching city celebration in Sarawak state of Malaysia on every month of August. It starts at first of August until the end of the month (24th). The first day will have a Kuching street parade at there. This year not much happening at there compare to the past years. The main event is always the food section, there sells ton of various of food. 

I went at there quite early due to less traffic. Late night will be pretty crowded as usual. Even at this early, there are still quite a number of people. I just went to ‘tapao’ or take away food. 

As you can see a lot of empty tables and chairs. But wait until you see at the other side.

Guess this side must be good ‘fengshui‘. Haha. Other than food section, there also has a garden show. This place is for sightseeing. Good for couples. Hehe.

Basically you will see this ‘thing’ as pretty scenery. Look below

Yea.. mini-fountain

Big fountains.. or waterfall this time.

Well you should be able get the idea. There is also a mini-stage at there for some night performers. Usually it will have some hip hop dancing at night. 

Lastly there has one section that selling some stuff, such as cars booth, household products and etc.

One more thing. I have encountered some odd incidents at the food section.

Eragon? Eragon the movie. gosh~ 

Dragon ball? Dragon ball the movie? Fyi, the movie will be out soon. 

Btw, today is a great day because of 080808 and also Olympic newly starts. Enjoy good life 

Last Wednesday ago, my friends and I went to quite a new cafe (in Kuching) after we had finished our movie marathon (Red Cliff and The Dark Knight). The sort of new cafe in town is located at Jalan Simpang Tiga. In simplicity, it is located next to Swinburne Sarawak (my current university) or opposite tHe Spring. It is 2-levels cafe, the ground floor is a Malay-like buffet with ala carte and the upper floor is a unique, upscale and trendy cafe which sells western food. By now, you should have know that this cafe is a malay cafe based on the spelling, ‘atmosfera‘.

We just went to the upper floor to have a drink. The environment was really trendy and a good place for chit-chatting. If I’m not mistaken, there had a total of 3 LCD TVs installed. 

We didn’t try out the food. The drinks at there were quite nice but a bit slow for waiting time. How about the price? Not so cheap by comparing to normal kopitiam. Haha. The price was similar like Starbucks. 

We sat at the nice area which could saw the outside environment, tHe Spring shopping mall (based on the above picture). We all enjoyed our drinks. I ordered tiramisu ice-blended, it was just simply nice and the creamy on top of it. It is well-blended, not like at Starbucks. At Starbucks (Kuching), you ate the ice instead of drinking. It costed RM11.50