Two weeks ago, we brought you the news of Transformers 30th Anniversary Exhibition at the Science Center, Singapore. Today is November 1st and the exhibition is now open. It is scheduled to run till March next year. Singapore media is bringing us the details:
“The Autobots and Decepticons have landed in Singapore. Fans of the hit toy series Transformers can come face-to-face with their favourite characters at the Transformers 30th Anniversary Exhibition, which opens at the Science Centre Singapore today.The 3,000 sq m exhibition is a fan’s dream come true, with 11 life-sized models of well-known characters including two 7m-tall statues, original toys and rare collectibles spread across eight zones.”
Update: 2005 Boards Member 0JazzMeister0 is bringing us her coverage of the exhibition. You can take a look at the Images and Info on the thread associated with this news post.
0JazzMeister0
Feel free to pop by the Singapore Sightings Thread closer to your arrival date and let us know when you'll be in town and we'll see if we can't arrange a meetup of some sort. Keep your Sunday(s) free. I think as someone said already, the China Square Central flea market on Sundays is a good place to start.
I'd be a lot more forgiving of this Exhibition had it been labelled something like "Transformers: Live Action Movie Exhibition" rather than what it is currently called. Cos apart from the Bayverse stuff there is VERY LITTLE coverage on the other TF lines to be called the "30th Anniversary."
As for the collection on display, the reason I didn't bother putting pictures up is cos most of it featured toys that I think all of us have at home. Some of us probably have better, more extensive collections with possibly rarer figures than what was on display.
A little bit disappointed with the Science Center over this. I worked with them 10 years ago when they brought in the Lord of the Rings Exhibition and that was brilliant. I visited their CSI Exhibition which was also a lot of fun… This one… well… sometimes you miss.
Liampope
I love China Square Central mall – loads of cool toy shops. Definately worth a visit and I buy stuff from there from Fat Toys Corner as the guy has helped me out sourcing stuff so I'm happy to support him. But because there is so much cool stuff there, the place is a bit of an attraction and draws plenty of customers, so maybe they don't have to be so competitive with prices and maybe you can find better prices at some of the other places dotted around. Falcons Hangar rings a bell and there's other places too. Singapore is awesome!
CyberShadow
Thanks for the pointer, Underwear. PMed.
foxindebox
Thanks very much
Underwear
May I suggest another UKer who's currently residing (& working) in S'pore who might be of assistance for you?
CyberShadow's Profile – TFW2005 – The 2005 Boards
foxindebox
Wow, I'm in Singapore at the end of January, gonna be heading to this for sure. Incidently, Jazzmeister, could you please let me know of a few good places to hit up for some toys (I'm from the UK, so anything would be better than whTs on our shelves )
Thanks very much
Skullgrinner
I went to this when it was in Macau. I dragged two fairly unimpressed kids around on the basis that it was "30th Anniversary" and therefore I expected it to be G1-heavy. It was not. Very disappointing Bay-verse centric but even for fans of that it was pretty thin on content.
Hoffman
Good to know, but nobody was questioning her fandom.
mephinc
We'd all love to see an exhibit showing off upcoming stuff but it looks as though this show is focused more on either children or people that generally don't know much if anything about transformers. If that is the goal then it appears to do a decent job. For those of us die hard collector's and followers, it seems drab or things are wrong etc.
Underwear
Just to point out in general, since I personally know the op. The op is a she & she's a very dedicated TF fan.
mcart
well, I have to say that whilst this exhibition does not interest me, the exchange I had here has placed Singapore very high on my list of places to visit! You guys helped me learn a lot about what frankly looks like a very interesting country today and I shall go to bed a wiser man. for this, I thank you!
I agree , would have been great to see some more of the history of TF rather than what seems to be a concentration on the moveiverse.
unicronic
Singapore, Philippines and Hong Kong (NOT part of Japan) are all highly proficient in English – as
in many people read, write and speak it better than Brits, Americans, Australians and Canadians.
Moving on, I've seen a few of these Asian continent TF exhibitions popping up but they generally seems more about putting a flag in the ground than showing anything new.
Would be good to see some more Combiner Wars stuff as that is what is next on the plate for Generations and, arguably, the next big toy event.
Hoffman
I think the problem was that he didn't just "point out an assumption", he kind of went off on an accusatory defensive rant.
9.8m/s^2
Oh, no, I certainly didn't mean to imply there was any racism at work! I hate that crap.
And yeah, I should have specified non-francophone Canada. I love the gourmet poutine and syrup, but I can't get around Montreal comfortably without local friends.
I guess I'm simply trying to say that calling someone a "jerk" for pointing out an assumption (even a statistically justifiable one, as you point out), is unnecessarily unpleasant. Ain't no need for any of that, or, I'll admit, the amount of text I've dedicated to the topic. Guess we can all let it go.
mcart
the assumption is on our side but it is on your side also…
You assume that everyone "just knows" or is going to look online to see that everything is in English in Singapore. It is an assumption on our part that we would assume an Asian country is not an English speaking country, I agree but would you be able to tell me which countries in Africa are French speaking and which are English speakers or Portuguese?
Should we all know the official language of every country in the world?
This is not a "singling out of Asians" Singapore happens to be an exception to the rule here, look at other Asian countries, they all have their own language.
Singapore is pretty much the only country in Asia to have English as the official (amongst others) language as far as I know and you just assume the rest of the world "just knows" this? To be honest I just learned this through this discussion, not because I have anything against Asians but just as I have never been to Singapore I have no idea about your country, although I hope to correct this at some point because it looks fantastic!
To be brutally honest, yes, it is a surprise to see everything written in English in an Asian country when you are used to seeing things written in Chinese in China, Japanese in Japan, Taiwanese in Taiwan, Korean in Korea etc etc. Even in Ireland places are written in English and Gaelic.
And yes, I have complemented Canadians on their English, not everyone in Quebec speaks English…
TL R, World is a big place, Singapore is an important country but some people will not know that it is an English speaking country. This is ignorance, not racism, educate don't hate.
9.8m/s^2
You mention the Netherlands and France; in those countries, I'd be hard pressed to get by without a translator (I found France especially difficult). In Singapore, everything actually IS IN ENGLISH. All the signs. Street names. Menus, media, and legal proceedings (which are, by the way, based on English Common Law, with the same style and level of language). Despite the variety of other languages used there, English will work for you there as well as it does in any large US city, for exactly the same reasons.
To put it another way, would you so blatantly remark to a Canadian on their excellent English? An Australian or New Zealander? Would you walk up to a Scotsman and say you'd like to "to compliment you in that your English/grammar is better than most Americans"? No? Then why is it necessary to ask the "how did you learn English" question just because, hey, Asians?
That's where the defensiveness comes from: the underlying assumption that Asians need to be singled out and commented on if their native language is English and not whatever it is you expected it to be. It's not made any easier when, after responding, a bunch of people proceed to accuse you of being a "jerk" and "overly defensive"; that just makes it worse. You mention being an Englishman, met with surprise because of your fluent French. Tell me, how would you feel, growing up in England, being constantly told how impressive it was that you'd learned to speak English so well?
Also, yes, this exhibition looks pretty mediocre. Singapore sometimes hosts some pretty impressive genre exhibitions (I recall some nice Gunpla shows), but this doesn't seem to be one of them. The Indianapolis Children's Museum also gets in a TF exhibit every so often; I've never gone to the exhibits themselves, but they can usually be relied on to have a selection (overpriced, granted) of the newest toys. Plus, the lifesize Bumblebee is nice, if somewhat outdated at this point.
mcart
Seriously, you never speak to a human being to know anything that can be looked up online ever? Must be fun at parties.
we can all Reductio ad Absurdum if we so desire, personally I have far too little time to bother with it.
Underwear
So does that mean we shouldn't use either Google/Wikipedia to find info or reference since it's oft-incorrect?
So get info from the library?
mcart
I have to agree that OP was overly defensive. I have lived a substantial amount of time in a foreign country (well, foreign countries but only one with a foreign tongue) and yes, whilst English may be taught in France, and whilst I could certainly write up a review of a museum in English even if it was in France I would be surprised to see the museum presented in English!
Now had Mephinc said, "dafuq, don't you guys speak Chinese or Japanese?" then yes, the highly defensive posture would be certainly understandable as I am sure that ignorant people ask this all the time but assuming that a county would have their own language is hardly an odd assumption!
Returning to Europe, most people from the Netherlands speak perfect English BUT a museum in the Netherlands would most likely be in Dutch.
This said, sometimes we react in a manner that may seem to others to be overreacting but then we don't know what is going on in that other persons mind. I used to get very frustrated by people saying "wow, you speak French well for an Englishman" despite having lived there for years and holding a degree in French accounting!
I would like to thank 0JazzMeister0 for having taken the effort and the time to show us this exposition and also point out that, yes, sure, you can look to Google for all the answers but then do you really want to remove all human interaction?
OK so now lets all get back to our toys, ok?!
Hoffman
I do think the reacting from the OP was way overly defensive.
I take it as a sign of respect when somebody actually asks a citizen/resident directly about their culture rather than using the oft-incorrect Google/Wikipedia.
As demonstrated by PikaManiac, who is a Singapore resident, did not react irrationally to the question, and in fact gave a much more detailed and nuanced answer than one would get from Google. Which is clearly what the question was looking for, an answer with the naunce and subtlety that accompanies cultures and societies rather than "english is taught and spoken in singapore".