Monkey business in the philippines

    Okay so I wanted to do this after I come back from the Philippines, but it's the final night of our trip and I'm unable to get to sleep (thanks to a symphony of snores), so here I am blogging away while my fellow Poison Monkeys Toymaker, Izakku81 and Edmund of Hobbymate are conked out like logs on the floor of our hotel room beside me.

What's that you say? On the floor? Of a hotel room? Four air-brush wielding tough guys bunking together in one room when we have two??? Yep. That's a story for another day!

For now though lets pay tribute first and foremost to our wonderful Filipino hosts:

    As I've mentioned earlier in our trip update, words can't begin to describe the warmth and passion that our friends from the Philippines greeted us with. We're there for the 1st anniversary celebrations of Mac forums.

The real star of the show is of course, Mr Kenny Lim aka Toymaker (above). Everyone wanted his autograph and a pic. I felt like I was travelling with a celebrity! LOL. Then there's Benjamin Wong aka Izakku81, who's no lightweight in the world of Gunpla medals either. And lets not forget homeboy celeb Don Suratos aka DC23.

To be honest, I'm a bit embarrassed that anyone would even want MY autograph! LOL. But what the heck, ya know? This is probably the only time in my life I'm gonna be signing something for someone, that isn't a cheque or an application form, so I'll take what I can get! Hehehe.

    I'd like to give a special mention to our main guides Don Suratos aka DC23, Jose aka Kisapmata, Tony aka MatX, and Adrian. Don, big thanks for showing us around and driving us through crazy jams. Your house rocks, your mum's cooking is kick-ass, and your kids are cuter than SD Gundams on a Christmas morning. What you've achieved for your local community in such a short span of time, we can only hope to emulate for ours..

Jose, you're a hoot man! Just thinking bout those balut-cum-massage discussions crack me up still. LOL. I look forward to shooting hoops with you some time. Tony, you're a kickass MC, singer and you don't look a day past 35, my man. ;) And Adrian, thanks for getting that Optimus Prime for me. So sorry to have troubled you bro! All the best with your build.

Here's a visual fest of what went down with the Poison Monkeys and friends in the Philippines:

Don's house, also known as Party Central for the event. It was raining and all 50-70 of us could still be accommodated inside. Man...you don't see housing like this too often in S'pore!

Don's awesome display with his trophies. We're talking everything from TFs to Gundam and even a Mashmallow Man. It's a museum! This is one of my favourite builds of his - The Graveyard!

Some other works by fellow party-goers were on display too:

  A yet to be completed Sinanju on hourseback Bakuc piece by Amir. His daring creativity caught my eye, I must say. Keep at it and don't ever give up on the passion, bro. I hope you make it to HK one day. :)

And what's a party without a feast, right? Everyone got treated to some home-cooked goodness from Don's mum. Thank you mam!

A turkey Dendrobium! LOL

There were freebies galore as part of a draw.

A little bit of KTV courtesy of Jose.

Not Don's house but a shop he brought us to in one of the cool malls that would put those in S'pore to shame with their variety.

    And last but not least, a big shoutout to some names at the party - Vanz, GundamPH, Affinity & Shaq (thanks for the email), DarkWorkx, TVA, Chainer, a certain 'Aaron' who we've seen on our FB page but whose alias I'm not sure if I mentioned, and everyone else whose names we didn't get a chance to catch, but whose warmth, we totally felt - a big THANK YOU on behalf of the Poison Monkeys and all fellow gunpla modellers in Singapore.

DC23 and friends, if you ever come over, it'll be our turn to repay the favour. Set a date. ;P