Rusty's solo Sunday Drive to Endah Parade

It was 11am in the morning when Trowa log into MSN. As I was showing off my new Selphie Tilmit PVC figurine to him I was invited to Endah Parade for a Gundam competition held by a hobby shop there since he’s a regular at that palace and like all loyal customers, they’ll try to help boost business of the shop. Since I’ve nothing to do today, I might as well give it a try, who knows, that shop might sell some 1/6 military figs or some really cute anime figurine. I left at 2pm but only reached an hour later. What’s the hold up? I overshot the exit and had trouble making a U turn. So in the end I turn out to the federal highway and start all over. Yeah, that’s truly a Kodak moment.

Anyway, it appears that the journey was more exciting than the destination. The first impression was really bad. The moment I entered the basement car park where was blockade all over the place trying to force traffic into a unidirectional flow. Unidirectional flow is a big no no in car park as it tend to jam up the queue when the car in front stops and wait for someone else to exit. As I got through the ordeal in the parking lot, I was met with a ghost town. Yes, that place is quite vacant. Over all built of the place is quite big, think of it as 1 Utama new wing but only with more floors. Seven floors of shops (LG-L5). I thought I was in twilight zone as the parking was full but when I reached 3^rd floor where the competition was held, rows after rows of shops was closed. After further exploring only I discovered that only lower ground till first floor was fully occupied and those are the busiest floors. It’s a shame that for such a beautiful layout, many shop lots are vacant and not properly utilized. It could be due to the rather lousy location of the shopping center since it’s just a drive away from down town KL. What really attracted my attention was a huge wooden ship inside the shopping center. Quite nice to look at, but that’s just about it. The main crowd puller is Carefour which is at the lower ground. Another thing unique about this place is there are quite a number of foot reflexology centers at that place. I’ve stopped counting at ten, and that’s just in one floor alone.

Anyway, back to the competition, as I guessed it, it’s rather small. Only two tables used with about 10 participants (food and beverages supplied). I’m not a big fan of Gundam. Sure, I do admire the figurine and model kits but I wouldn’t buy them even for display. However I’d definitely buy some MechWarrior stuff though. According to Trowa, that shop is specialized in Gundam stuff and it’s true, inside the shop, there’s loads of Gundam kits stacked till the selling, no joke man. As for anime figure, it’s rather disappointing as the collection’s small compared to what XL is offering. But, if you are looking for rare items, this is definitely the place. For the first time I’ve seed Hasbro binaltech transformers. What’s the difference with Takara? Takara binaltech is die cast metal wile Hasbro’s plastic. And the quality difference is really noticeable. If I’m good on the air brush I might consider. Although no exactly what I had in mind of a Gundam competition, still it’s a nice experience and great opportunity to test out my K750i in macro mode.

The boat inside Endah Parade

Shops closed on a Sunday

Shop where the competition was held


it wasn't even big


believe it or not, you are looking at the winning entery