Merry Christmas 2013

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2013

For Christmas post this year, I shamelessly am showing off my Christmas present this year which is a gift from myself for myself. To make it more shameless, it is actually a personalised mini size figurine sculpted from my photo. Hoho..

I had always dreamt of getting this figurine since many years back when I saw the pull cart outside Disc Tarra. I was a student so money was an issue at that time. Not to mention that it took several weeks for the completion and I did not want to order if I could not be around when the item was ready. When I returned subsequently for holiday, the whole area at MKG 2 level 3 was renovated and the pull cart was gone. About 1-2 year ago I knew the pull cart relocated to La Piazza but due to the time taken, I was not interested. However, this year, I saw a stand at Funan IT Mall which made it very convenient and revived my intention to get one. 

I decided to get it done in Singapore. It cost me $118 ($148 and 20% off) and it took about 2 weeks to complete. There are more than 400+ designs and since Christmas was nearing, I chose a Christmas design. The one in Jakarta has less designs but there are more interesting ones based on movie characters like Spiderman, Superman, Green Lantern, Star Wars, etc. The pricing is similar but it will take 5 weeks to complete! Bleah.. No idea why it is taking so long. I actually went to Funan 3x because I was quite embarassed to submit my own photo and make my own figurine! Lol.. The first time I went there, it was a young man manning the booth so I was shy. The second time, it was a young girl. Lol.. I was looking for the auntie who I asked for more information the week before and lucky I caught her the 3rd time.

I was so eager to make one that I did not really do a research on the quality. I did not even ask whether I can touch and look at the samples more carefully. I was excited to read that the figurine is made of resin which means that it will be quite durable. Resin durability was my excuse to justify the price I am paying. Therefore, I am extremely disappointed to realise after getting the item that only the BODY is made of resin. The head is sculpted from clay which was then baked. So it is something like Play-Doh! It can get dirty, quite fragile, and I am worried about the possibility of melting due to hot ambient temperature. In fact, I got a part of hair damaged when I reached home. Shucks!

Other than functioning as a figurine, it can be used as a photo holder too. Unfortunately, the metal holder cannot stay in place with the hole at the base. Not that I am intending to use it as a photo holder but I was thinking of attaching the original photo to compare the face.

Those displayed at the shop resemble the original pictures very closely so I am also a bit peeved that mine does not really look like the picture I submitted. I will say about 50-60% resemblance only nia... Nope I am not going to show the photo which I submitted for comparison. Haha.. I don't want people to know who I am who writes this blog.

Well, more pictures to show off this thing. Hehe..

The packaging box

Foam packaging to protect the figurine

Look at the stupid stick as the neck! Not seen here but there is a "crack" at the point where the head is stuck to the neck. This is the result of not inspecting those samples :'(

 The details of the resin body

 Close up on the face

Imperfect attempt to stick back the broken hair

Ultimately, the main turn-off for me is durability issue with clay. If the head is also made of resin, I will not hesitate to make more figurines of myself!! At the end of the day, for someone as narcissistic as me, it is another tick on my wishlist. I have a sketch of my face, a poster-size framed photo of myself, and now comes a figurine sculpted to my likeness. What's next? Haha...