TMX 11.29.08: Best. Experience. Ever.

When the invite said “Luck’s on Your Side,” the organizers of The Marlboro Experience (TMX) were dead serious. They made sure the participants were treated like VIPs: from the choice of a convening area (M Cafe in Greenbelt 2), dressed-up F150 transports, police escorts on the highway (man, I can sure get used with those), welcome committee wave, tour proper (with iPods as guide), the food, adrenaline pumping activities, and contest prizes because you can never go wrong with premium Ducati/Ferrari Gear (TM) and Marlboro (TM) items. (more…)

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Fake Adidas Pilipinas track jackets from the Internet

The Philippine-Flag-design inspired Adidas Track Jacket has been decommissioned for a reason so it came as a great surprise when ads on sulit.com and several other similar sites came out of this one seller offering a number (with sizes, mind you) going for the same hefty price tag. What? No mark-up considering its rarity? Hmmm…. somthing’s amis.

Would you pay P4,500.00 for a jacket that you find upon close inspection to be fake? What if I didn’t know how to tell the difference? What if I hadn’t tried wearing an original once before? What if I was too excited to pay close attention?

Irvin and I were supposed to get two, one for each of us, from this dude who for this post we’ll name “Koya.” In August, while Irvin is in the US, he requested his friend (uuuuuy!) Samie to get in touch with me so we both can meet up with this Koya character to bind the purchase. I was exited because I wanted to get one badly for the longest time. It was a good thing that Koya was confident enough to let me eye the merchandise before making me pay for them. Originally, the seller wanted to meet me along the Enterprise walkway at 6PM, a busy time on a not-so-well-lit place. I objected because not only would I like to see the jacket, I also wanted to try it on. After some more haggling via SMS, we agreed to reset the meet at an earlier different date. 

We met a day prior that of the original rendezvous at the ground floor of his work place in one of the buildings along Ayala. The moment I took the jacket out of it’s plastic covering, it already felt wrong. I tried it on, looked at my reflection from the mirror-like outer finish of the ground floor elevator door (LOLOLOLOLOL, I mentioned elevator), and saw a ghastly formed jacket nobody in their right mind would pay P500 for.

It felt cheap.

I told Koya my observation which he naturally defended. He said his supplier also claimed its authenticity and that we were all “victims” in this. 

I told Koya I’m sorry but I won’t get one. Samie, on the other hand, said she’ll take Irvin’s despite all of this because they had already been paid in advance, fearing that she can’t anymore demand for a refund. The next day, after finding out what happened, Irvin contacted Koya saying he will be sending Samie over to return the jacket and that he will be asking for his money back. Koya obliged knowing full well that a lot of people would still kill to get one, anyway.

We nearly got conned and as vengeance, here are photos showing details of the fake jacket. I took these before Samie returned what she got for Irvin.

It’s payback time (insert evil laugh here). We all should not patronize this way of doing business. As your reference, here are clear photos of the fake marchandise for you to look at. Buying them will probably make you want to kick yourself in the face because they are not worth the price tag of the original.

Read Irvin’s post regarding his experience here (with actual links where the fakes are being sold on the internet. SURE WIN!!!).

Please spread the word. Be warned. Don’t get conned!

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Photos from the iPhone 3G (Philippines) Launch by Globe Telecoms

[ Please click on each of the 15 thumbnail photos in
chronological order to reveal its larger version
and the blog entry ]

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Edward and Alphonse Elric (Fullmetal Alchemist) Paparazzied

I’m on a roll! I first took photos of my Edward and Alphonse Elric toys in August 2007. Too saturated those, if I may say. A year later, I do yet another photo shoot. Only this time I’m using a camphone, some orchestrated lighting, and I made sure the shots are tighter.

No intro needed, really. I give you the brothers Edward and Alphonse from the animated series Fullmetal Alchemist (toys are made by Banpresto). Click on the image or hover above the title of the photo to go to the next image. Now if only I can get ahold of the four other figures to complete the set. Got them on sale from Kids Station in Rockwell last year.

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Shooting 12-inch Dorothy (McFarlaine)

Six posts before this one, I shared the photos I took of Anne‘s “horror” themed toy collection. Looking at those shots, I thought I could do better with a little more dramatic lighting here and there plus a notch up in composition for some edgier vibe on the shots. The moment her new 12-inch Dorothy toy (McFarnaine) was delivered, images of how I’d shoot that sexy statuette made my head spin. I’ve got to take her snaps and it better be sooner. Not long after Anne retired for the night did I make the doll pose, illuminating her with just a lamp and LEDs off a caving contraption, and the output took my breath away (not to gloat or anything but they seriously did. SRSLY!).

Whether or not I improved in taking photos of toys in just a week’s span, you be the judge. Hover on the title of the photo to reveal thumbnails of the four other photos in this set.

Anne’s post starring Dorothy can be found here.

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Anne’s Cult Classics^TM toys Paparazzied

I’ve been sick the past two days. Yes, *sniff-cough-sniffsniff* but no flu can stop the Paparazzi from snapping away like a giant crab full of crab fat! Yes! Crab fat! The problem was, um, what do I shoot? LOL It was then that I saw Anne‘s (teh housemate) toy collection atop our bookshelf. Upon close scrutiny, damn, those toys sure have great detailing! And they’ve multiplied, too! There was a time when S-Mart Ash was by his lonesome on that shelf and now, behold! It’s like an invasion, I tells ja!

It’s a shame sometimes that wimmins have more toys that I do. *sighs* In this set are Medieval Ash, Shaun of the Dead, Sebastian “The King” Haff, Bubba Ho-Tep, and the Friday the 13th 25th Anniversary Boxed Set all from NECA. What I love about taking photos of toys is I can take my sweet time composing the shot without me worrying about the models. In carefully planning the framing of the shot, you may not even need to crop out unwanted parts of the final output. Sweet.

Some of these were done during sunset, thus, the yellowish light. The living room curtains became the backdrop for several and then there’s the apartment’s relatively newly painted walls. See, we can be creative and indigenous with our shots and they’d still turn out good.

Here be the photos.

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