Trips and stuff (mostly stuff)

mimo USB flash memory Jewelry

2008-07-24T23:37:00.000-07:00

Everyone and their mother’s sister’s boyfriend’s cousin have a thumb drive. Heck, we’ve all seen our share of donut and sushi themed drives. Honestly, this kind of gadget is usually considered a gag gift in my book. But last week I found a USB drive that I wouldn’t be embarrassed to use as a real gift.

I was pretty drawn in when I saw these displayed in a Hong Kong Hobby store and stumbled in to ask to borrow units for demo (it took a while to man up, I was asking for free jewelry in a very girly store). Sure enough they sent me a few samples after asking for my card and a whole lotta questions. I am pretty surprised that no one have posted about them before, as it seems their marketing ads looks pretty neat and uh…appetizing:

I gotta hand it to these guys for mounting the drives onto the pendent-type pieces: pop-out style! The “snap” and the feel of the device were pretty solid. The reader itself can actually be pulled out for swapping microSD cards.

Here’s a video of my demo with the pop-out action. When I said “memories” I meant microSD cards (FOB moment).

In the video you’ll also see another type of non-pop out USB flsh memory that they have. Again it’s a simple microSD reader, but the elaborate measures they take to actually make this look like jewelry is commendable.

Here is what a more natural strawberry flash memory looks like:

Again these seem to be only available at this Hobby store in Hong Kong, but from their website (www .mimo.com.hk) they do have a link to their Amazon store, which ships internationally. For a price range of HK$328-HK$398 /42-64USD (2GB versions), they don’t even come near to the cheapest 4GB thumb drives you can buy online, but for a piece of functional jewelry (deep down, don’t we all want our jewelry to function? Com’on!), this makes a pretty solid gift.

PROS
It’s not a soft plastic food replica
Looks like jewelry/keychains girls would like
USB 2.0 adapter with swappable memory
microSD is a very popular media (most phones except sony-ericssons use them)

CONS
The adaptors are snug and require some effort to pull out

Tad expensive if you only need a simple flash drive
It doesn’t seem like they have anything for guys (unless you’re the Macaron type)
You can only buy them online in the states

3" wings of redemption Spawn figure

2008-06-17T20:43:00.000-07:00

I am a fan of spawn figures. Not a collector, mind you, just a fan. I am constantly blown away by their dynamic poses and level of detail. One in particular, the series 21 "Wings of redemption Spawn" I am especially fond of, but can never find for a reasonable price (usually far exceeds its collectable value). So imagine my suprise when I found this while I was at a Japanese trade show!

This belongs to the 3 inch trading figures s1, among them also was the santa spawn (which I bought too), mandarin spawn, redemer, curse..blah blah blah...the point is I got my wings of redemption spawn, abeit at miniature (and portable!) form. The guy who sold this obviously didn't share the same appreciation for the sculpts because I got both figures for the price of a pack of gum. Everybody wins!

Behold the details of this figure! Honestly, places where I thought would have paint smeared or poor screen-printing were perfectly done, especially the eyes, which is a far cry from the sans-QC export marvel figures I am used to.

The only gripe I had were the half-assed shoulder joints, which at this scale could easily be blended with the body, but unfortunately for us, directly shrinking a 6" figure was more cost effective.

Overall a good buy (obviously). A mini version which shares a detail level close to the original is arguably a better buy for people short on shelf space. That said, this will not stop me from my ongoing quest for the 6" original. Anyone wanna sell me their's?

Holy crap...what?

2008-06-16T21:26:00.000-07:00

I am gonna post here cuz there's just too much weird stuff here y'all should see. Plus pretty pics when I do get around to use my D80