Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Ultimate Pinky:St originality check

Some website on the internet mentioned to check the shoe for marking: "Baby Sue Vance", other than "Made in China".
This however not always the case. Pinky:St WildArms have shoes with heel and the only marking printed on it is "Made in China". Even flat shoe of Range Murata collaboration does not have one.

Thus, where else can we check?

Some other website suggesting the head. Pinky:St is a modular design where you can change the hair. It take some effort to remove the hair especially the rear part, but you need to remove that. At the back of the head, notice that the original Pinky:St have hexagonal hole, and there will be at least a marking "©BABYsue - VANCE". If it is collaboration, the other collaborator will have their own copyright marking too. For Wild Arms, additionally, it will have "©SCEI" and for Range Murata, additionally, it will have "©RANGE MURATA - MAT".

I know it is not possible to do this with web auction all the time, but if the delivery method is meet-up, you could suggest this method of checking.

If the seller refuse as the packing is never opened, then it is your call. If you want original packing un-opened then there is no way to check the head for these markings.

However, if you do not mind to open it, you could pay 50% first to show that you are a genuine buyer, albeit a very cautious one. Pass the money (agreed percentage less than 100%), open the packaging and check the marking.

If the seller totally refuse or back-out from the deal, it is for your own good as his/hers may not be an original, and he/she know it.

Edit (23 Dec 2007):
Apparently this kind of testing is also not that accurate.

I bought a Pinky with Rabbit Scooter (collaboration with Choro-Q, May 2006 version). The packaging is all good, with copyright mark "©TAKARA CO.,LTD.2006 ©BABYsue - VANCE" exactly like that is shown here (http://pinky-st.skr.jp/choroq01.html) at the bottom, although there is no Vance logo there, like the one in the picture.

Before I exchange the money with the goods, I checked the mark underneath the shoe and I saw "MADE IN CHINA" on one side and "©BABYsue - VANCE" on another, so I guess it is pretty good chance it is original. When I opened the packaging, the head come off from the body very easily. I am not sure if that is due to the orange scarf. To my surprise, the pinky rear head, after detaching the hair, does not have any marking at all. There is no copyright marking at all. The hexagonal hole at the back of the head is not as noticeably hexagonal as the normal series release.

Searching further, the backing card of the packaging do unfold, and can be a playmat with road and pavement print (grey scale), and I found 2 mini promotional flyers from Takara Tomy and from Pinky:St (promoting Sweet and Bitter DVD version).

Is this the case of having everything original and the seller mixed up a fake pinky head with the real pinky head? I have no idea. Please enlighten me.

Edit 26 Dec 2007:
I have made contact with many other Pinky collectors especially those who owned Pinky with Rabbit Scooter (collaboration with Choro-Q, May 2006 version). They have confirmed with me that they are very sure that theirs are original version, and theirs also does not have copyright marking behind the pinky head, and that the hexagonal hole at the back of the head is not as noticeably hexagonal as the normal series release. Also confirmed that the pinky head of this particular one is rather loose.

Encourage children to play with Pinky

Recent incidents of shooting worldwide (but mainly in America) involving young offenders has been quite alarming.

Virginia Tech massacre, perpetrated by Seung-Hui Cho (23 years old) with 8 victims followed by a suicide.
Westroads Mall shooting, perpetrated by Robert A. Hawkins (19 years old) with 8 victims followed by a suicide.
Las Vegas school-bus shooting, one of the suspect is 18 years old, arrested in Dever, injuring 6 victims, of which 2 with critical injury.

The above are just to mention a few in US. Some argue that the cause is due to loose gun control in US.

The gun is simply a tool. Yes, making it difficult to obtain helps to reduce the incident, but the perpetrator can still pick up another tool, be it a knife, a stick or stone, or a piece of string.

I am not trying to make a justification for loose gun control. On the contrary, I support tighter gun control. However, we cannot stop at tighter gun control.

In a shooting incident at Euro International school in Gurgaon, Haryana, India, Akash Yadav (14 years old) and Vikas Yadav (13 years old) brought a gun to school and shot and killed Abhishek Tyagi, allegedly a school bully, inside a school bus. The gun control in India is very tight, yet it happened.

If someone really want to kill, one will do it regardless the tight control, either by using a gun, or by other means.

I believe the real cause of all these is that these children are indirectly educated and thus believe that violence is a solution to a problem. It does not happen in a short time. It happen gradually, where subliminal messages were picked up from watching movies or even news on TV, in newspapers and on the internet. They slowly learn to realise that gun could end an argument decisively.

Another source of these undesirable subliminal message comes from the toy they play with when they are young. It is easy to give little boys toy gun or knife, and they love it, often imitating the heroes or villains from the movies they watched. They are given toy soldiers, and toy tanks, and wage their wars.

These toys does not encourage a good development of emotional quotient, which they need when they grow up. If they felt violated, depressed, what is the solution they can think of? If they are never been exposed to a constructive solution, they will reach to what they are familiar with: violence.

So what kind of toys available out there that can develop good emotional quotient? Pinky is one example.

First, the character design gives variety. They have various hair colours, from blond, brown, red, black, to unconventional blue, with various hair style from short to long, with locks, pigtail and ponytail. They have different colour eyes, and some wear glasses.

Most importantly, they have different facial expressions.

Some are happy, some are sad, some are muted, some are contented, some looks playful or mischevious, some with evil grin. Some looked tired or uninterested, or probably just feeling a bit cold? None of the constant happy smile of Barbie and friends, or Bratz. And you do not have to be concerned because none of the Pinky are overly sexy unlike Barbie and friends that comes with D+ breasts.

You could swap their clothes from mini skirt, long skirt, pants, blouse, t-shirt, jacket, trench-coat, school uniform and so on.

With all these variation you cannot stop at one. Soon there will be a group of pinky characters in your collection and they will form a community.

The children playing with these toys will be stimulated to tell a story using their pinky figurines. Why is this girl sad? Oh she lost her favorite book. Can her friend help her to find it? Or another story on the happy girl, whose father just bought her a new bicycle, and found out that one friend is jealous of her.

The kids who played and tell stories will be exposed to different emotions, arriving from daily problems and situations. Adults can supervise them and encourage them to arrive to a desirable solutions, which is civil and just. Enforced with repetition, throughout their growing-up years, these children will become a stable adults with high emotional quotient, and able to contribute constructively to the society.

Some may ask if these toys could encourage IQ growth too. Well, yes but not directly.

Pinky as a basic figurine do comes with some accessories like bags, pouch or handbags. Some comes with bamboo bench, fence and flowers, and others comes with a scooter. But these are not enough. You will be hard pressed to find mini furniture to accessorise the community. You can buy some of them, but you can also make them using paper, cardboard and glue. Those with more craft skill can even venture with other unconventional material like clay. When using paper and cardboard, the children need to translate a 2 dimensional material into a 3 dimensional item, enhancing their geometric skill, either by calculation or by trial and error.

For those who dream to be a fashion designer, they can use markers to draw different patterns on their pinky figurines.

There are two drawbacks of pinky figurines: Balance and Posability.

Their oversised head may throw them off balance sometimes. This, however, can be easily fixed with a small amount of gluetack to the bottom of their feet.

The posability is more challanging. Pinky figurines do not have articulated joins, so their limbs are stiff. You cannot make them sit, unless you replace their bottom half to one that is of sitting position. This drawbacks can be seen as a challenge for those with higher skill of craft. They could venture to the domain of plastic surgery, where modification can be done with the aid of sharp knife, hobby putty, and paints. Do not expect this to be done by children of age 13 and below. Older teens however may love this challenge and improve their patience and hand-eye co-ordination.

In conclusion, pinky figurines does have a lot of educational potentials in it, and not just looking cute and pretty.

Please allow your children to play with Pinky. Oh well, you too can play with Pinky.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Pinky Series 1

Pinky Series 1 was first released in April 2003.
The series consist of the trio Yoshiko (PK001), Suu or Sue (PK002) and Tamae (PK003).

Yoshiko (PK001) has dark brown hair, almost black, and brown eyes. She wears a black t-shirt with a pink flower, pink mini-skirt, knee-length black boots.
Her extra outfit is a pink hooded sweatshirt, white trousers, pink socks and black shoes (with pink soles).
Yoshiko's facial expression is one of curiously interested, or thinking something funny. She hold one finger to her face, almost touching her mouth.
She also comes with a yellow bunny doll, which she can hold by one of the ear.
As a bonus, the original packaging includes a button. It has a white background, with pink edge, and a pink asterisk.
The resale the package includes a button. It has pink background, with EXIT written on it, in white, and a silhouette of a running Pinky.
At the back of the packaging (the paper piece) there is Japanese poetry.
ボクのヒミツ知ってる?
みんなには内緒にしてね。
ボクほんとはね・・・
ホントは・・・***
There is an English translation I found from pinkyfreaks.com
"Do you know my secret?
Don't tell my secret to anybody.
To tell the truth, I'm really...
I'm really... ***
This is an absolute secret!"

Suu or Sue in English spelling (PK002) has dark brown hair, almost black, and grey eyes. She wears a grey hooded sweatshirt, matte black skirt, dark grey pants and black shoes (with white soles).
Her extra outfit is white hooded sweatshirt with blue sleeves, grey mini-skirt, knee-length white boots (with black trimmings).
She also comes with a pink bear doll, which she can hold by one of its hand.
Suu/Sue's facial expression is quiet disinterest/annoyance. She puts both of her hands in her sweatshirt pockets.
As a bonus, the first release package includes a button. It has white background, with pink edge, and the unique P logo of Pinky in blue.
The resale package includes a button. It has white background, with black edge, 2 silhouette of Suu in greenish grey flanking a black silhouette of Suu. Written on top is "Find your own [1]".
At the back of the packaging (the paper piece) there is Japanese poetry.
今日は家出の日。
ママとケンカで家出の日。
もう家には帰らないの。
でもママがいってた、
ばんごはんはカレーライス
・・・やっぱ帰ろうかな。
There is an English translation I found from pinkyfreaks.com
"I left my house today.
That's the day when I got in a fight with my mom.
I will not go back to my house.
But my mom said,
Today's dinner is curry and rice.
...Should I go back home?"

Tamae (PK003) has dark brown hair, almost black, with two blue hair-clips (on the front right), and dark green eyes. She wears a bright yellow hooded sweatshirt with Pinky:St logo written at the front, black pants, dark grey socks and white shoe (with orange soles).
Her outfit is of white short sleeves t-shirt, with orange sleeve, light grey skirt and pants and orange shoes with black and white soles.
She also comes with a blue cat doll, which she can hold by one of its hand.
Tamae's facial expression is one of a skeptic or with suspicion. She puts her hands by her sides.
As a bonus, the original package includes a button. It has a white background, with orange edge, and an orange asterisk.
The resale the package includes a button. It has black background and a grey pinky-face trace. Written on the right edge, PINKY:ST written in orange and white shadow. Also written in a tiny white font with broken English: "[th]e [c]hanging-clothes figure skating of newfeeling which can enjoyrecombination freely with spare clothing feeling."
At the back of the packaging (the paper piece) there is Japanese poetry.
大きなネコを見たよ。
目つきのコワいおっきいコ。
むこうがジッとコッチを見るから
ワタシも負けずにじっと見た。
そしたらぷいっと行っちゃった。
There is an English translation I found from pinkyfreaks.com
"I saw a big cat.
The big cat has sharp eyes.
It stares at me.
So I stare at it, unyielding.
Then it goes away, annoyed"

About this blog

The name AhMyPinky pays tribute to Ah Megami Sama (Ah My Goddess).

It is not related to that particular anime although I do not rule out the possibility of me later modding 3 Pinkies to become Belldandy, Urd and Skuld, hehe.

It is, however, related to anything and everything about Pinky Street.

Along the way you may encounter pages with a thumbnail images (the small images). If you want to see the larger image, simply click on them and you will be transported to whichever larger image it is linked to. After gawking at the larger image, you can return to this blog by simply clicking the back button on your browser.

I would like to also acknowledge some sources:

  • The translation of Pinky Series 1, 1A, 2, 2A, 3, 4 are taken from now unavailable http://www.pinkyfreaks.com website (it was still available till end 2007, but may be now available in google cache).

  • The pinky poetry are copied from はじめてのPinky:st.(ピンキーストリート), as I do not know how to enter any Japanese characters on my computer.



Thank you for reading. More coming soon.

PS: this site has a sister site, namely ahmynendoroid.blogspot.com

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

My Pinky Collection

This entry is actually to record down what I have in my collection so I do not buy too many of the same pinky (but I do have quite a number of duplicates now - the counts below may not be up to date)

Air Gear (complete: ringo & agito)
Mono Comme Ca (2004 pink)
Mono Comme Ca (2004 light blue)
Mono Comme Ca (2005)
ChoroQ Rabbit Scooter v1 x2
ChoroQ Rabbit Scooter v2
ChoroQ Messerschmitt v1
ChoroQ Messerschmitt v2 x2
Pinky:st in Town Figure and Book Set (diorama book)
Acchi Kocchi Pinky:st Figure and Book Set
Go! Go! Pinky Street Figure and Book Set (1 complete with book, 1 figure only)
Tsukihime (pinky + booklet) (PC2001)
Range Murata 1, 2 and 3 (complete: rmp001:1200, rmp002:1200, rmp003:1200)
Wild Arms (PC2011:1200) x2
Street Fighter (PC2006:1200)
Kira Kira Music Hour Limited Edition (DMP-DS01) x2
Kira Kira Music Hour Limited Edition (DMP-ST01) - black bat wings
To buy: Kira Kira Music Hour Limited Edition (DMP-ST02) - white bat wings
Pinky:Show Time! #001 (PINKY-001)
Pinky:Show Time! #002 (PINKY-004)
Evangelion cos (PC001:1000)
WonderFest Limited Edition Rei (PKW2007 Rei)
WonderFest Limited Edition Asuka (PKW2007 Asuka)
WonderFest 2008 Limited Edition (PKS2008)
Evangelion Rei v.2 (PK2012:1360)
Evangelion Asuka v.2 (PK2013:1360)
Animate (cos, complete) (PC1001:680, PC1002:680, and PC1003:680 x2)
Sakura War (PC2007:1000) x2
The King of Fighters (PC2005:1200)
SuperLover (complete: Cat & Bear & Bunny)
Tenjo Tenge (complete: Aya, Maya, and Isuzu Emi)
Pinky Yukata (standing) (PC003:1200)
Pinky Yukata (standing, repaint) (PC003A:1200)
Pinky Yukata (sitting) (PC002:1200)
Pinky Yukata (sitting, repaint) (PC002A:1200)
Space Invader (complete: PKA001, PKA002, PKA003, PKA004)
Monster Hunter Reia (PC2019)
Monster Hunter Bone (PC2020)
Monster Hunter MonChan (PC2021)
Fruit Basket Tohru Honda Pinky (no code)
Makoto Konno (The girl who leaped thru time) - newtype (PC2018A)
Makoto Konno (The girl who leaped thru time) - tokikake (PC2018B)
Shakugan No Shana II Pinky (PC2022B) Flaming red hair (bought because I want the trenchcoat)
GoFa(Pinky:Party PinkyCollection-01)2006 SPECIAL PACKAGE
(Melanchony of Suzumiya Haruhi) Suzumiya Haruhi Pinky (PC2014) x3
(Melanchony of Suzumiya Haruhi) Mikuru Asahina Pinky (PC2015)
(Melanchony of Suzumiya Haruhi) Yuki Nagato Pinky
(Melanchony of Suzumiya Haruhi) Tsuruya-san Pinky
(Melanchony of Suzumiya Haruhi) Yuki Nagato Pinky Sitting Position with spectacles (PC2025A)
[ I did not opt to buy PC2025B, which is basically the same as above minus the spectacles ]
Sanrio Pinky: Pinky:st x My Melody (PC006)
Sanrio Pinky: Pinky:st x Kuromi (PC007)
Sky Crawler: Suito Kusanagi PC2023
Sky Crawler: Yuichi Kannami PC2024 

G-Kit Pinky:
Navy-chan (with sword, extra body swimsuit)
Army-chan (with spork)
Mari-chan (with anchor)
Jiei-chan (normal)
Jiei-chan Sailor
Pinky Fighting Vehicle (Tiger I / Type P Kampfwagen VI)

Series 1, 1A and 1B complete
PK001:680 x2
PK001A:680
PK001B:680
PK002:680 x2
PK002A:680 x2
PK002B:680
PK003:680
PK003A:680 x2
PK003B:680

Series 2, 2A and 2B
PK004:680
PK004A:680
PK004B:680
PK005:680
PK005B:680
PK006:680 x2
PK006B:680
To buy the rest of 2A series

Series 3, 3A (complete)
PK007:680
PK007A:680
PK008:680
PK008A:680
PK009:680
PK009A:680

Series 4, 4A (complete)
PK010:680
PK010A:680
PK011:680
PK011A:680
PK012:680 x2
PK012A:680

Series 5, 5A
PK013:680 x2
PK013A:680
PK014:680
PK014A:680

Series 6 (complete)
PK016:740
PK017:740
PK018:740 x2

Pinky Series 7 (complete)
PK019
PK020
PK021

Pinky Series 8 (complete)
PK022
PK023
PK024

Pinky Series 9 (complete)
PK025
PK026
PK027