Memorable Weekends - Iron Man, McDonaldLand x Hello Kitty and Esplanade Mega Ceramah in Penang

Some of the more memorable weekends recently. Especially the cartoon characters, one for the boy and one for the girl :)

Iron Man Character Cosplay Walkabout and Kids' Cosplay Photo Opportunity at 1st Avenue

弟弟 watches Iron Man cartoon on Disney XD sometimes. With the new Iron Man 3 promotion activities, he got to dress up as Iron Man character and also took photo with Iron Man and War Machine character cosplay guys. So funny, after taking photo with the guys they shake hands with them.

Iron Man kids' cosplay :)

With Iron Man character

With War Machine in black suit and Iron Man characters

War Machine and Iron Man costume on display

McDonaldLand x Hello Kitty at McDonald's Greenlane

姐姐's turn but just photos. Some people will think, wah, what's with all the photos of stickers? But to 姐姐 who is a fan, it is the effort of us accomodating her interests. And yes, we have the plushie toys too. The stickers were gone a few weeks after the promotion ends.

Recently there are pinkish and white flowering trees blooming near our home :)

Mega Ceramah at Esplanade

This is the first time we're bringing the children to such a mega ceramah. They had been asking about election and what are all the flags doing on the streets. We only went after Friday's class and we were stuck in heavy traffic jam from Jelutong expressway. Still we "crawled" there :) And since all the cars on the road are stuck in standstill, we just parked somewhere near the old Prangin market and walked all the way to Esplanade on foot (along Beach Street). We only stayed for a little while as it's getting late, we only manage to squeeze at the end of the field. It's like a carnival with people waving flags and blowing horns.

That's the MPPP building at the background on the left, we were right at the end of the field.

Since we walked such a long way there, the children said they are hungry when passing by China House. So we dropped by for some cakes and drinks. Their opening hours are until 1am on weekends.

They drew these after their cakes

Mother's Day celebration

We had celebration at TGIF with Cowboy Burger (hahaha) and Tennessee Chicken. The children had their usual kids' meal on the house. Didn't order dessert as we were all too full. 姐姐 said she belanja us this meal :)

Friso Growing Up Together Days at Queensbay Mall

The children had been looking forward to this Friso Growing Up Together event as they saw the ads and it's their milk. The children are given a "passport" each upon registration. However they are only allowed to play 2 games and 1 craft session for each passport. Probably the organizer have limited sets of the craft to go around. The Friso team will stamp on the passport after each game/craft session.

Doodle Badge craft session

Doesn’t this monkey look familiar? Yes, it’s the monkey on 姐姐’s Doodle Badge J

Playing "Lilypad Hop" and "Mad Monkeys"

After the games is "Virtual Painting", but we split into 2 teams so didn't take any photo there. Should've taken family photo :P but 爸爸 and 弟弟 went off for bio break just as we got our turn.

Photos from "virtual painting"

While waiting to register for next craft session, we drop by Aeon for the free rides in conjuction with Aeon Carnival. Registration for each craft is only 15 minutes before it begins and on first-come-first-serve basis, so we have some time in between.


Right before the "Glove Toy" craft session, the MC was making jokes as warm-up and asked for a child who drinks Friso. 弟弟 put up hand and he was happily chatting with the guy. Only got a portion of it on video :)

Making a Glove Toy craft session

The other toys joined the photo too :)

In case anyone's wondering, we got one Friso Agent toy for each child as we brought two Friso tin foil, one for each child. And we got another two toys because we purchased 2 tins of milk at the promotion venue. A mom bought 6 or 7 tins, so she got a bagful of Friso Agent toys.

Luckily 爸爸 is back this weekend to bring us as each child need to be accompanied by a parent for the games and craft. Thank you for the fun!

Just because of Hello Kitty

I signed up for the Hello Kitty debit card just because 姐姐 wanted the Hello Kitty souvenir. Ok, so I like Hello Kitty too, otherwise I wouldn't have brought them to the meet and greet session to take photo. And remember the Hello Kitty McDonald's Happy Meal Collectible watches? :)  

Luckily we went to open the account on Wednesday, as it is cuti peristiwa for 姐姐's school. I heard from the bank staff that many people came on Monday and Tuesday until they ran out of the souvenir. There weren't many people at the branch we went and the transaction was done quickly. At first we were told we had to come back to collect the gift. After taking some time to setup the online banking stuff, the customer service lady was chatting with us and just so happened she received the additional souvenir a moment ago. So our happy little girl came back with it. Just a little document folder but she was on cloud nine the whole day :)

Drowning in pink. On her hair is Hello Kitty clip, gift from 婆婆

Happy Meal toys

Today is replacement class for 弟弟's kindy as they closed a week due to HFM prevention. Perhaps we were in rush to go home as traffic buildup outside kindy after their field trip. So we were wondering why Happy Meal didn't pack together with Collectible toy. After class today, 弟弟 bring back his Ronald toy (Kids' best friend at McDonald's) and additional kids' stuff like McD time-table and times table (ha, like a rhyme). Ronald is a bobblehead toy, which means his head can bob up-and-down. Thanks to his teachers for keeping the toys for him!

Lightning McQueen recycle bag

弟弟 posing with Lightning McQueen recycle bag found at Tesco while queueing at payment counter. There's another design with Finn McMissile and Mater which we didn't have time to take photo. He's very willing to pose with anything Lightning. He already has some Lightning stuff, such as his school bag, pencil case, even toothpaste has Lightning picture. Not to mention some books on Cars.

The Smurfs Happy Meal Collectibles

Saw from McD FB that folks are experiencing almost the same issues for Smurfs toy as what we experience for the Hello Kitty watches promotion. Again, some McD stores are not following schedule in the poster, causing folks to run around stores looking for the Smurf they like. Also some stores had taken down the poster advertising dates and availability of design. Thank goodness for internet, we still can ensure we are not overcome by old age and mixed up the dates by saving those pictures. No use ya, as they don't follow the dates and don't follow whatever rules or guideline. When the complaints are brought up via FB, the same answer given, that the toys are probably no longer available due to popular demand and stores move up the toys for next week etc. McD had tried to feed the same lines to the ones who complaint and fueled even more fury. Some outlets gave old toys for delivery service (not Smurfs, some got Doraemon - blue but not the same cartoon ok, some got Spongebob cartoon), and some outlets gave old toys for drive-thru. So really, have to be specific, ask, confirm and verify, verify, verify. There's even complaints about the free Smurf fridge magnet, there were 3 designs and were given free by their staff at their discretion for kids who dined in.

Learn from experience peeps, for the RM3 toy that is popular we really need to run around several stores looking for it. Luckily this time our children do not like Smurfs so no request to get any. The worst is that some people are buying up the Smurfs Collectibles and trying to sell online for profit. My sympathies to all the poor parents who hunted every McD to complete the collection for the kids and yet people are trying profit from the shortage. No more Happy Meal Collectibles if we can help it.

The Smurfs Meet and Greet at Queensbay Mall

Even though our children have not watched the Smurfs cartoon, they know about Smurfs from all the publicity the little blue folks are getting from the malls, ads etc. While queueing up, they talked about pulling Smurfs' tail... sigh.... luckily they behaved and phototaking went smoothly. The Meet and Greet session is currently on at 12pm and 3pm on 30 and 31 Aug. Very funny, the lady in front of me asked why are we queueing while waiting for the event to start. I asked her back, then why are you in the line, it's photo taking. Cute la... people queue up just because there is a line. I never thought I'd meet anyone who likes to queue so much. Later the lady and her family left the line even before the Smurfs came out.

Both children shake the hands of each Smurf after taking photo, cute ya..

Cars is all the rage too, we will definitely watch in TGV at 1st Avenue as 弟弟 already "date" us. Feeding the Cars frenzy with cute Cars merchandize....

 

Expensive you know... these plushy ones cost about RM150 at ToysRUs

Highlight of my day, have to beg the children and "bribe" them to take photo with Jang Keun Suk poster :D This is at Nature Republic store which JKS is spokesperson. There is also poster of Kim Hyun Joong at The Face Shop.

Highlight of their day....

Hello Kitty watch from McDonald's Malaysia

One word sums up the experience - a mess. Since when is Hello Kitty so influential with the young girls? When we inform our princess there will be Hello Kitty watches from Happy Meal, she was smiling shyly when we offered to get one for her. As the watch she wanted is Purple Fairy, we'll have to wait until 25 Aug for it to launch. Last week, she came back and told me that her friends already have Hello Kitty watches. She say FJY has the purple fairy watch. I thought she was mistaken or the girl told her the wrong watch. Then she went on about who had which design, example her class monitor has Red Kitty Head, other friends had Green Apple etc. I told her would check when we get our logistics back to normal (爸爸's car sent for repair for 2 weeks). Already got 弟弟 the PLURAIL Series E3-2000 Tsubasa train that he chose.

When I went to enquire on Tuesday, staff at McD Greenlane told me Purple Fairy already sold out. I'm like -  what????!!!! But it's only suppose to be available on 25 Aug. How can it be sold out before it's sell date? I asked about Pink Star, and it's only available on Thursday. The staff told me apologetically that it's their management decision to switch the 2 designs, and no reason given. Also I notice that they do not display the Collectibles unlike previous promotions, no posters too. Luckily their FB page still showing the photo which I downloaded. And yes, my eyes didn't play tricks on me. They just changed it as they like. Tried my luck at Tesco McD, sold out as well. The service really bad until the staff is not able to answer my questions ie which design is coming out for this week. The supervisor is too busy with her PC and phone and ignored the staff so I left without wasting more time there. 爸爸 went to check with McD Sungai Dua and the staff there told him, previous design Pink Star sold out, Purple Fairy coming out on Thursday. Hurray, so we manage to get both designs for 姐姐 on Thursday by going separately to McD Greenlane and Sungai Dua. We went to get Breakfast Happy Meal on Thursday. Either folks didn't know there is Happy Meal breakfast or most people do not like their breakfast or not so many people want the Pink Star/Purple Fairy designs. We got both designs zippily. Actually can also get the Collectibles with RM3 without the Happy Meal. If we did not manage to find any outlets selling Purple Fairy and if all of them simply change their "decision" and deviate from what's advertised, then I'd definitely make an official complaint. Even on their FB page can see many people complaining about the Collectibles this time.

Fortunately all's well ends well, at least for us. Hope other folks able to get their 心水Kitty :)


The Happy Meal, somehow we got both fruit cup and hash brown?



 

爸爸 say the McD staff gave him these

Angry Birds craze

Angry Birds - who are they? They are so popular among the kids and adults alike. Walk into any mall or pasar malam, you'd see Angry Birds merchandise. We don't allow the children to play video games, online games, computer games. But still 姐姐 like Angry Bird as all her classmates and friends play those games and keep telling her about it. She said her favorite is the yellow color. So when her teacher ask them to draw their fave cartoon, here is her version.

When the children saw Angry Bird stationary at the mall, their eyes were gleaming. I dragged them away and promised them if they get good results in their final year-end exams, I will get them the stationary set each. Bribe again :P

Smurfs at Gurney Plaza

Gurney Plaza Penang is having activities with Smurfs theme. Even at the cinema floor, you will see Smurfs cartoon hanging everywhere. If you like Smurfs or 蓝精灵 then by all means check out the display at New Wing. On 8/27 they will have children coloring contest and mushroom making contest too. We thought of joining but 姐姐 have extra classes and 弟弟 have replacement music class on that day and won't be able to make it. Too bad... they were so excited as they thought they could join a coloring contest.

Both the children have never heard or seen Smurfs before. I wonder if local TV is still showing the cartoon. For me, I had watched Cantonese version from HK before and also shown locally in English.

Transformers mask from ToysRUs

**Chuckles**... posing with Bee poster finally at ToysRUs with masks. It's funny how Bumble Bee is swanking new as a yellow sports car while his robot mode is sometimes covered with dirt.

Just wondering, wondering.... will Bee be arrested here, since he is all of yellow :) hahaha...

When we queue up to buy the Bumble Bee that comes with KFC chicky meal last week, we saw one of the moms fr music class. I showed her we're here to get Bee and she was quite shocked as she said this is for boys to play. In this day and age of globalisation and equality... when girls play with robots also kena comment is boys' toy. I wouldn't have a problem with it if she plays ... but she just collect and keep, now it's missing 'd.

Transformers, we are hooked again

Yes, we went to watch Transformers 3 at 1st Avenue's TGV. Citibank promotion for TGV buy 1 free 1 tickets during weekends with their credit card only valid through 26 June 2011. But for those who are going on weekdays there is a RM10 per ticket promotion with Citibank. We went on Thursday as it's Penang's public holiday and the children didn't go to school. So we didn't get the promotion price :P But children are charged RM7 per child instead of RM12 like us.

Waiting for show to start.. took some photos of this mock setup of Optimus. He does look like coming out in the photo huh? :) We didn't watch the 3D version as the children don't really know how to appreciate it. If watching on our own, we'd definitely go for 3D. In order to bring them to the cinema, we had been preaching to them about sitting through the show and not to make noise. For reward, we will buy them a box of popcorn each :) We had 1 of each type, 1 salty and 1 sweet type. Actually the sweet type taste better for the children.



1st Avenue TGV is quite comfy and very new still. The seats are tiered seating, meaning the seats are arranged in sloping tiers so that the ppl at the back can see over the heads of those in front. Especially good for short ppl like me and for children. It's so irritating to be seated behind some big guy and we keep seeing his head instead of the screen.

It was super cold inside, and both 姐姐 and 弟弟 keep complaining about being cold even though they have a jacket on, especially complain more towards the 2nd half of the movie where there is no robot scenes. Seems like that is the time when the popcorn run out too.

姐姐's comment about T3: super boring..... watch for 2 hours, legs also cannot walk after movie finish
弟弟's comment: human parts super boring... only robot and fighting parts good.

My verdict: It's true... the parts with humans are mostly boring, even gross sometimes. The story is overall a bit out... I only like the robot and action scenes. Some of the action are in slow motion, so we can see it better unlike the previous 2 movies which everything happen so fast. I don't get the movie critics comments either, worrying about the actors' acting skills. Sam Witwicky is his usual self, pretty good. Model gf is terrible in acting, and her lips look like 猪唇. I didn't type wrong, really looks like pig, but her hair and body is hot la.... She is not suitable for action movies, keep screaming and is very irritating. Megan Fox was much better looking and looks much better in the action scenes. And the ppl doing T3 really 敢死, kill off our fave Autobot Ironhide, also kill off the Decepticons' mighty Megatron, Starscream and Shockwave. I didn't read the comics or any of the books, so I didn't know if they really died in the end. But even movies like Pirates of the Carribean went to movie #4, Fast and Furious to movie #5, Harry Porter to movie #7, not to mention James Bond, Batman etc. How could Transformer stop at #3 and how to continue when the baddies all dead? Aih... doesn't look like they can be revived since already berkecai.

After the movie, we were so inspired that went to KFC to buy the Bumble Bee toy which comes with Chicky meal. It's still available there as of Thursday. Wah... this toy actually can make Bumble Bee recorded sound. So cool ya... for the same price of a Chicky meal. Wanted to get a Optimus Prime too but he is sold out at KFC Batu Lanchang.

弟弟 with Bumble Bee




On Saturday while going shopping at Gurney Plaza, we tried to look for KFC there, but 爸爸 couldn't find any KFC there. Guan lai really no KFC there. We went around to Bayan Lepas, and stopped at Sunshine and Giant, but Optimus prime is already sold out. Finally last stop, Tesco, and got him there. 爸爸 even have to ask the counter staff twice, luckily the manager on duty heard him and bring out another bagful of toys and dig out from there :) So that's why the group photo here. 弟弟 had been asking us to get Starscream for him since he heard me saying only left Bumble Bee and Starscream. But we refuse since knowing them usually the bad guy will be left in the cold and not played with at all ... we'll see if he request again LOL


Saw this activity book at KFC Giant, took 2 back for the children. There is a page with stickers which they enjoy.