Alternator Prowl China Police edition

One of the souvenirs I brought back from Beijing is a KO (Knock-off) Alternator Prowl in Chinese Police car design. Simply put, it is a copy of an alternator toy with chinese police car decos; and a very good one for a superbly low price of 50 Remembi = Rm 25.

We'll start with the box. The box is using an almost similar box of the Binaltech Prowl, with manual booklet, display cardboard and plastic holder. Upon seeing the box you would not know that is a copy unless you noticed the different logo and the absence of the "TAKARA" and HONDA copyright. Even though it is using the Takara Binaltech box, the car is unfortunately is of Alternator quality.




Underneath the box shows what other alternator prowls are available.


The contents of the box.


The close-up of the car mode. The entire car is white in color with the "great wall" chinese police force logo and decals similar to the police cars in Beijing. The plastic quality is ok and the door, hood and boot fits tightly, unlike some KO alternator where the doors and hood will swing open if you turn the car upside down. Even with the engine inside the hood, the hood remains shut. It's like this company used to make Hasbro's alternators!!! There are no Honda or Type-R logos visible on the car.




The parts which can be opened.


The transformation to the bot mode, for a Knock-off, is similar to that of an alternator. Some of the KO alternator/binaltechs I have can't complete the transformation or their bot mode looks weird because some of the parts are larger than the other etc. This kind of toys have strict tolerances, and any defect can ruin either the bot mode or alt mode. For this particular KO, the transformation was smooth.

The bot mode meanwhile is on par with the alternators. Joints are tight and not too loose, although one of the foot joints was a little too tight. The hood easily locks into the torso. Overall good bot mode.

Heads up!


Front


Side


Back


Comparison with Barricade.


Note: Click on the image to enlarge

Beijing Trip 2

This is part 2 of my photo post from my Trip to Beijing. Part 1 showing day 1 is below.

So off to the great wall of China! Quite hazy compared to yesterday. Dunno if it is haze or mist or fog, but if you are a pilot it is really hard to see anything.

This photo shows part of the great wall across the valley.


The gate to Beijing from a small city to the left of the photo.


Part of the wall is steep.. very steep with no breaks in between. Uneven steps and the steps has sunk from constant used. So I climbed up to the tower at the top...


Only to see that you can climb even higher to the next tower. Needless to say, we turn around after that and head back down.



Next we head to a cloisonne factory where they make all this fragile pottery china. Can see how these items were made. They create the pots using copper and copper fillings. If in M'sia leaving all the copper stuff outside will result all of them gone overnight.



Then we head to this wax museum showing the periods of the Ming dynasty. The quality of the figures to say the least... China QC. There are limbs in not natural positions and some of the displays are really gathering a thick layer of dust. Then some of the exhibits are either gory and funny. Like one showing the emperor in bed with a common lady while a minister tries to speak to him outside but prevented to do so by his jaga. Then one jaga in a "HURRY UP LAH!!" stance at the door.

This one shows a "spy" in action


One the way back to the city center pass by the water cube and the bird's nest. Cannot really go near as it is still under construction.




Spotted by the "Bukit Bintang" area of Beijing for a while. There we stopped by a Macdonald's to see what they have on offer. There is grilled chicken (something like char siew chicken) burger & egg with ham pie, something different from here in M'sia. Darn, why our mac so lousy wan???


This ends my post showing photos taken on the 2nd day.. more to come !!

Here are some of the photos taken during my trip to Beijing.

The place shown below is the OCT theater where we saw a theater performance called "Golden Mask Dynasty". This is a relatively new building, with very very advanced stage. There is one scene where water was pouring from the stage to simulate a massive flood.



This is the 1st hotel we stayed in Beijing. The hotel is rated 4-star but the inside like 3-star. The next day the tour leader decided to change to a more "better" hotel. Gald we did as the other hotel was waayy better.


So off to the forbidden city the next day. This is the entrance to the forbidden city that we have just passed called the Meridian Gate.


Next up is the Hall of Supreme Harmony. This place is where the Emperor's speeches are made for everyone to hear. AS you can see it is under renovation for the games.


Before entering the Inner palace where the Emperor's throne is, will passed by these 2 gold lions
The male


and the female


Once inside can see the emperor's throne. As you can see the stuff is very dusty.


We then exit the forbidden city by the Gate of Divine Might. We walked from Tianemen Square>Outer City> Inner City> exit by gate of divine might. There are 9999 and a half rooms so to speak, but of course we din go into every roomlah.


Then afterwards we went to this "tea house" to get to know more of the tea available in China (but can be bought in m'sia, m'sia sell everything). I mention this place coz our tour group consisted of several Malays since it is my father's company trip. So we went with the English speaking group, while the chinese tour mates went with the Mandarin speaking group. The english speaking group majority malays and to be frank, they dun drink much chinese tea. My mom drinks tea, but can buy from Gojo tea shop in Gardens MV, top floor near Borders. So the presenter was quite upset that she could not make any sales from our group. She even said something like ".. do you have a problem with this so and so tea...". Needless to say, we quickly cabut from the room after that.

The mandarin speaking group took longer that our group so we did buy something after that, but not the stuff the presenter was trying to push us. Managed to bargain to get a "pee-pee boy". Basically it is a small sculptor where the boy will "pee" if the water is hot enough for the tea is poured onto him.



So that ends my post for the first day in Beijing.

Here is a photo showing the floor layout of the hotel we were staying. Read the sentences:P

Take a look at all my souvenirs I brought back from Beijing, China :)

Went to Beijing for holiday from the 4th to the 10th of June 2008. Didn't post anything immediately after the holiday coz too tired after the trip.



The list of souvenirs are:=
1) KO alternator Prowl in China police decals (amazingly accurate and well built)
2) 3 big hand-painted fridge magnets (2 of them has QC problems, haih China makes the worlds magnets and can't even get its own magnets right!!!)
3) Great Wall "hero card"; you buy it when you climb a short (but extremely steep) portion of the great wall at the top
4) OCT theater ticket (some theater performance)
5) Beijing 2008 soft toys
6) Beijing 2008 2-D fridge magnets (this ones work well)
7) Thermo-sensitive Beijing 2008 mug (decal change color when hot water is poured)
8) Forbiddden Palace museum fridge magnets (the one with the red and yellow baju)

and many more souvenirs which my parents bought for themselves. As you can see, i'm more of a fridge magnet/soft toy collector type of tourist.

Anyway the trip to Beijing was great, although it can be a little better. Few things about this Beijing trips:-
1) Tour agency will bring you to some tourist sales place like those selling pearls, tea, herbal medicine etc, bring you into a room (not locked I can assure you) and give some lecture/demo and after that expect you to buy. Can't blame the tourist companies, its their tourist dept. directive. And the prices are not cheap either since you are paying tourist price. One of the places sell burn cream and the demonstrator actually BURN himself with a glowing hot heated chain to show how effective it is. Some can even get upset if they know they will not get the sales.
2) Shopping in their "pasar malam" type of shopping center can make even the BEST bargain hunters KALAH TERUK. Some of the sales ladies/men are well verse in English and know how to bargain to their advantage. Also they will quote a substantially higher price and you need to bargain it down to appropriate levels, though the price of TF there seem like those in toy shops in KL.
3) Beijing has been cleaned up for the 2008 games. No kidding, all the buses are new (including our tour bus), the streets are repaved and alot of places are still under construction (will they make it). But some roads can see 1 storey high walls along the streets to block the view from the main road of the houses/shops behind it. Like DBKL build a huge mural to block the view of some setinggan houses around KL from the road.
4) The new Beijing Terminal 3 airport is BIG. BIIGGGGG.
5) Our flight from KLIA to Beijing was delayed, so had to stay in the KLIA air-port hotel (no not Pan Pacific, the hotel inside the satellite building) for 1 night, depart in the morning.
6) Beijing is hazy.
7) Great wall is STEEP.
8) The birds nest is cool :)
9) There is ALOT of Knock off stuff. Fake Ipod, fake cell phone, fake Ultimate Bumblebee, Fake Leader OP, fake Louise Vutton wallet, Fake ... anything!! Even saw fake X5 and CRV.