For Now, It's Siku for I

I'm back to my first love: toy fire trucks! I'm not leaving out pens and inks and notebooks, no. I just want to go back to my previous fascination before I got so enamored with fountain pens, inks, and notebooks. It's a coincidence, perhaps, that my treasure of fountain pens and toys come from the same places: Japan and Germany.

I love fire trucks. Real fire trucks, toy fire trucks, it doesn't matter - as long as they are fire trucks. I'm not sure what it is, but there is something about a big, red truck with sirens and flashing lights that always fascinates me. I tried to get my hands on a remote/radio controlled fire truck, but that plan did not work, and I was left wanting and pinning for a red toy truck. Until I found a couple of small, shiny, die-cast models called Tomicas. Tomicas are die-cast toy vehicles that are produced by Japan's Takara Tomy Company.

I bought a lot of Tomica trucks, not only the fire trucks, but also those of the construction, trucking, and farming series. I even got myself taxis and police cars. Other toys caught my fancy, like the Fire Saver from Matchbox's 50th Birthday, part of the 9-toy package I got from Leo Sajonas sometime last year. And then there's Siku.

I have always wanted to add European toy fire trucks into my collection. And research pointed me to Siku, which has, more or less, similar selection to that of Tomica's. I've seen them in toy stores, but couldn't get them because I didn't like trucks that are bigger and larger in size than my Tomica trucks. But Virra Mall's Toy Kingdom made me a very happy collector when I found out that their Siku selection now includes the Siku Super Series. Hurray!

And now, here are my Siku toys.

Here is Siku No. 1068, a Unimog fire engine, scaled at 1:87. It is cast in metal, and its high-quality design has fine detail engraving. This piece has been offered since 2006, but was only available here in the Philippines last year.

This is Siku No. 1345, a 4x4 version of the Panther airfield water cannon by Rosenbauer. It is designed for use at smaller airports, with the No. 1889 scaled at 1:87 meant for big airport action. Introduced in July 2009, I'm very happy to get it here now.

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My Rhodia No. 10s at Play

I love my Rhodia No. 10s, and my toys love them, too!

It's obvious I had fun with my Rhodia pads when I did the photo shoot last week. Winks. :) I used the ChoroQ initially for size comparison, then I thought of my Cararama VWs. If only the other VW is orange and not red! It would have been a perfect Rhodia combination, right? Well... maybe it's time I go back to the toy store and find myself a black and orange combination...

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Eye Candies = Shotglass + Toy Truck

I said I will write updates, and I did one on my pens and notebooks the other day. I am yet to write about the books I've read and the movies we've watched lately, yet I'm so giddily excited about these two eye candies that I'm writing about them now before those books and movies. *Wink.*

First, this shotglass. A new shotglass!!! Yey! I haven't gotten anything new in so long I forgot when. This shotglass is a gift from W, a good friend who truly surprised me when she sent this through someone in a brown bag (another brown bag!) with a yellow Post-It tab as a gift tag that said: "To CSD, For your collection. From: W."

I held my breath as I opened the bag because it took me so long to rip out the newspaper it was wrapped with. *Chuckles.* Then after the newspaper wrap, it was again wrapped in a thick bundle of soft paper for extra protection. And I deeply appreciate that. And when I saw the shotglass... Ah, I was just speechless. It came from the Philippine Military Academy, the country's premier training school for future officers of the Armed Forces. The crest/seal states: Courage, Integrity, Loyalty. Wow. This is my second Pinoy shotglass, and it now sits among my growing collection. Thanks, W!

Now this toy. This truck is Tomica No. 36: Nexco self run type mark car, with an Isuzu elf body scaled at 1/64. This is my first toy in a long break off collecting toy trucks. My last toys were #51 (Toyota Crown Comfort Taxi) and #68 (Isuzu Snorkel Firetruck) bought in September last year. I know I've been left behind in my other collections, with my last elephant in August last year, and the shotglass and toys in September.

I got new stuff latety, though. Aside from new pens and notebooks and inks and papers, I also got Christmas stamps and tea. Yes, tea. The ones that come in bags with tiny colorful tags? But that's reserved for a another post. Later. Ahem.

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My Mid-Week Loot

I was in the City the whole day yesterday for a project meeting with a client at his posh building at Paseo de Magallanes. I got time to spare after the meeting and so I went to Alabang in search of the stuff that make me happy: pens, toys, books. And so here they are, my mid-week loot. Sinful, I know, especially to my shrinking budget and a headache to my savings allotment, but never mind. I haven't rewarded myself like this in a long while... *Grin.*

First, here are my Tomica toys. The first one is Tomy #68, an Isuzu Snorkel Firetruck scaled at 1/110, and the second is Tomy #51, a Toyota Crown Comfort Taxi scaled at 1/63. Why it's called a Comfort Taxi, I don't know. (Don't ask me. He-he-he.)


Next, I bought my own trio set of Pilot FriXion Ball gel pens. They're amazing! Pilot pens are just amazing! I also bought refills for my .7 G2s.

And then... I finally found the Rotring fountain pen I've been wanting to get. Yee-ha! It's a Rotring Newton 600 with an 18k gold B nib. Whoa. I'm now enjoying the pen as much as I enjoyed using the Core, my first Rotring FP.

My Wednesday in the City is a very productive day. Successful with my meeting, successful in getting the stuff I want--as a reward to my hardwork (and heartaches) the past several months.

Oh, and I also got my B a Nicholas Sparks paperback, A Bend in the Road. Sort of a belated quid pro quo for the Murakami she got me. Right, B?

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More Toys

I got myself more toys!!! Here are my new Tomica truck carriers: #14, which is a Mitsubishi Super Great Car Carrier, and #47, an Animal Carrier.

And now that my interest moves to collecting police cars too, here is my first Tomica police car, a Toyota Probox Voluntary Service Police Car scaled at 1/57.

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New Toys

Got myself new toys yesterday. I got two new Tomicas, both Toyota Coasters, #92 and #118. I'm not keeping away from my passionate affair with firetrucks and trucks, I just couldn't resist the coasters when I saw them. Who could? Look at these beauties here:

Above is TOMY #92, a Toyota Coaster scaled at 1/89. Below is #118, the Toyota Kindergarten Bus, also scaled at 1/89.

I'll get the buses next time around. (Grin.)

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More Firetrucks

I'm really crazy about trucks now, especially little, small firetrucks. Here are my most recent "acquisitions", products of my recent weekend trip to the mall.

Here's a most coveted Takara Tomy ChoroQ No. 42. It's such a beauty.

And here's a Cararama Land Rover Fire and Rescue Service. It comes with an acrylic case. So nice.

And here's a MatchBox Ladder Kings. I'm so tempted to open the blister pack!!!

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My Valentine Loot

I really didn't have the time to write about my Valentine loot, which actually are several items I bought from our recent trip to Makati on V-Day. Yup, our Valentine's Day was spent coordinating a seminar-workshop and a press conference at the Hotel Intercontinental in Makati. Well, for most of us, the Day was just another ordinary day, except that flowers are being sold everywhere we went. The day started early for us, since we still needed to travel to Makati from Los Baños, and all of us in the van were deep asleep because we only had two or three hours of z's the night before due to the GS launch. Hehehe. The seminar started late by almost an hour, and went overtime by two hours!!! The press con was over by four, and we were given two hours to roam the malls before our group dinner at six.

When we went to the mall, I went to Landmark's toy department and got these:

New fire trucks!!! These are Tomica Nos. 41 and 74.

There were other fire trucks in the store, but I wanted to get all the Tomicas first, before I move on to Cararama, Maisto, and Corgi.

After an hour at Landmark, my next stop was the Toy Kingdom at SM Makati. Sadly, the Tomicas there are all cars, no fire trucks. So I declined.

Next stop: National Bookstore. Guess what I got?

This is the Inoxcrom Vivaldi Fountain Pen I've been wanting to buy. And it came free with my name engraved on the plastic barrel. And it's blue.

Our group of 13 finally met at six, and by six-thirty, we were like a bunch of kindergartens walking in the sidestreets of Glorietta looking for a place that can accommodate all of us to dinner. By seven, we were seated at TGI Friday's waiting for our salads and steaks. Whoa. But before that, since Hardrock Café is just across TGIF, Popen and I made a dash inside HRC to buy a pair of Hard Rock Café Makati shooters. Here is mine:

See? Valentine's wasn't so bad after all. We were working, we got free ride to Makati, we shopped, we had free food. Not bad at all. (*wink*)

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Along Came Tomy

I was in the middle of writing about my new-found hobby earlier last week when somebody interrupted my flow of thought. Oh, well.

So what’s new? Well, I am now into collecting toy trucks. Whoa. (grin) But yes, aside from my other collections, namely: journals, notebooks, pens, elephant figurines, soda cans, shot glasses, and fast food toys, I am now into toy trucks. It all started when one of my officemates came to work one morning and brought along his remote/radio-controlled toy car. Shucks. I knew I wanted one too, but the idea of a big RC toy car wasn’t very interesting to me. Toy cars aren’t my thing. What I want is a toy fire truck like this, complete with water spout, sirens, lights, ladders, and all the stuff that go with a real fire truck. But I don’t have the heart to shell out that much amount of money over a toy. At least not yet.

But one afternoon, while I was heartbroken over losing a James Patterson book to someone else at my favorite second-hand bookstore, I cheered myself up by going through Robinson's toy section. Hmmm… Among the limited toy selection I was looking at, the small cabinet of TOMY scale models caught my attention. And… surprise! Right in front of me are three TOMY firetrucks! At that time, I didn’t have any second thoughts of buying the toys. I bought the following TOMYs:

• #13, scaled at 1/159, it’s a Morita airport crash tender;
• #22, scaled at 1/120, it’s a Nissan diesel aerial ladder fire truck; and
• #108, which is a Hino aerial ladder fire truck, it is scaled at 1/139.

After my purchase, I realized the value (or importance) of TOMY or Tomica items in the toy industry. I was surprised to learn that TOMY has its own following, comparable to Matchbox, Hot Wheels, or Maisto. And so, me being me, I wasn’t content with the fire trucks yet. I got to have the other trucks (did I say I’m not into cars?)! Here, I got myself two new TOMY toys:

• #71, scaled at 1/110, it’s a wheel loader from the lot of several Hitachi construction machines; and
• #120, the last in the TOMY set, it’s a Komatsu articulated dump truck scaled at 1/144.

Next time I’ll get the Komatsu Motor Grader (#24) and the Off-Road Dump (#102). Or I can also get the Coca-Cola trucks (#s 35 and 105). That is, if I don't get to find the other TOMY fire trucks yet (#s 41, 68, 74, and 119).

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