#flashbackfriday: Disappearing Thieves Market & Toy Shops Through The Years
"Sungei Rd flea market to be erased, NEA confirms", goes the headline for The Online Citizen.
Known as the "Thieves Market" in Singapore, it was the one locale I would loved to have brought visiting friends to, but for the immense heat, and unknown element of being able to procure anything or gain anything from said visit. And I never once did, actually … Perhaps I judged too severely here, but soon the point will be moot, as Thieves Market "will be making way for the new Sungei Road MRT station, which is expected to be completed by 2017." Remembering my sole blog-post about the place, and am liknda "proud" of my bloggery attempts then too LOL
I remember a time when I spent as much time there than with regular toy haunts - all for the sake of hunting props for movies, or retro stuff I'd love to collect … and sometimes I'd get lucky with toys - ranging from McDonald's happy meal toys, action figures, and Barbie's accessories (I have somewhere in my hoard, 2 x VWs, 1 x Kitchen and 1 x refrigerator), and this plastic toilet bowl in kitschy-green … stuff that seemed to have "dropped off at the back of the delivery truck"-sorta vibe, as the spot was well known for stolen goods, etc. Hence the name "Thieves Market", yeh? :)
It was utterly enriching in "the beginning", where I'd be able to procure props for my films and television sets - only trouble being having no "receipts" to claim my monies back hahaha
Things turned downhill when folks begun to dissever what I was doing, that I worked in film and was looking for props (I must've made a slip and word spread faster than I imagined). The anonymity I had enjoyed before, soon became a recognizable beard Chinese guy - who NEAR EVERYONE I visited - would offer me something "good for your movie!", which by then, prices grew higher, and no longer a viable spot, if not for the array of weirdness (altho I constantly wondered WHY folks thought I was making a "horror" film - I never made one HAHAHAHAHA).
Subsequently I would bring folks from my Art Department along, and "secretly" pointing out the items I wanted as props to my girls, and they would in turn smiley-charm the uncles for better prices … the ruse didn't last long tho hahahaha
All these happened near a decade ago … and I haven't made an effort to visit ol'Sungei Road since … and all these somehow reminded me of toy shops from times past, that no longer exist … from Clarke Quay's bustling flea market, to Bunny's corner shop in Shaw Towers (you can still find him at Sunday flea markets at CSC helming a table), or even that Basement toyshop along Bras Basar, and Falcon's Hangar in Far East Plaza (since moved to Waterloo Centre), and my fav haunt of all; Jerrick's spot at Midtown Orchard - where many of my 1/6 toy-collector friends gathered every weekend … memories faded, but burn vibrant when remembered :)
These were the toyshops I "grew up" with, in my early adult years, and as with commercial enterprises, shops come and go - some shops close business, some move and flourish - but are simply not "heritage sites", in the traditional historical and cultural context provided for and dictated by the government, which is understandable, but to we/us toy-collectors, they represent such locales chockfull of memories and as well a physical place fellow collectors might congregate and commiserate … and in the internet age where a purchase is a click away, that physicality is replaced ever so drastically by a moment of instant gratification, that which replaces the joyful need for a shared toy-joy, face-to-face … and one might only "come down from the mountain" only once a year for conventions LOL
But all these places remain with me, because of the "good memories" they retain in my heart, and perhaps in this age, in my heart and head it shall remain, I guess … sure as heck can't bottle up the shop itself and display on the shelves like toys, innit? LOL
Cheers
Andy
Known as the "Thieves Market" in Singapore, it was the one locale I would loved to have brought visiting friends to, but for the immense heat, and unknown element of being able to procure anything or gain anything from said visit. And I never once did, actually … Perhaps I judged too severely here, but soon the point will be moot, as Thieves Market "will be making way for the new Sungei Road MRT station, which is expected to be completed by 2017." Remembering my sole blog-post about the place, and am liknda "proud" of my bloggery attempts then too LOL
It was utterly enriching in "the beginning", where I'd be able to procure props for my films and television sets - only trouble being having no "receipts" to claim my monies back hahaha
Things turned downhill when folks begun to dissever what I was doing, that I worked in film and was looking for props (I must've made a slip and word spread faster than I imagined). The anonymity I had enjoyed before, soon became a recognizable beard Chinese guy - who NEAR EVERYONE I visited - would offer me something "good for your movie!", which by then, prices grew higher, and no longer a viable spot, if not for the array of weirdness (altho I constantly wondered WHY folks thought I was making a "horror" film - I never made one HAHAHAHAHA).
Subsequently I would bring folks from my Art Department along, and "secretly" pointing out the items I wanted as props to my girls, and they would in turn smiley-charm the uncles for better prices … the ruse didn't last long tho hahahaha
All these happened near a decade ago … and I haven't made an effort to visit ol'Sungei Road since … and all these somehow reminded me of toy shops from times past, that no longer exist … from Clarke Quay's bustling flea market, to Bunny's corner shop in Shaw Towers (you can still find him at Sunday flea markets at CSC helming a table), or even that Basement toyshop along Bras Basar, and Falcon's Hangar in Far East Plaza (since moved to Waterloo Centre), and my fav haunt of all; Jerrick's spot at Midtown Orchard - where many of my 1/6 toy-collector friends gathered every weekend … memories faded, but burn vibrant when remembered :)
These were the toyshops I "grew up" with, in my early adult years, and as with commercial enterprises, shops come and go - some shops close business, some move and flourish - but are simply not "heritage sites", in the traditional historical and cultural context provided for and dictated by the government, which is understandable, but to we/us toy-collectors, they represent such locales chockfull of memories and as well a physical place fellow collectors might congregate and commiserate … and in the internet age where a purchase is a click away, that physicality is replaced ever so drastically by a moment of instant gratification, that which replaces the joyful need for a shared toy-joy, face-to-face … and one might only "come down from the mountain" only once a year for conventions LOL
But all these places remain with me, because of the "good memories" they retain in my heart, and perhaps in this age, in my heart and head it shall remain, I guess … sure as heck can't bottle up the shop itself and display on the shelves like toys, innit? LOL
Cheers
Andy
