Another Rant, You Say?

I haven't been quite as active with Gunpla lately as much as I want to because of work, and what little Gunpla I do has been relegated to looking at a kit and wondering what sort of mangling it will undergo when I get to mangling it.  Even this blog has fallen to neglect, not because I am neglecting it intentionally, but, since there's nothing in the line of projects for me to post, I don't really bother posting.  My last post was a mere announcement of The MAC Forums' 1 year on earth and cyberspace.
MAC is one year old, and we've achieved aplenty in terms of member projects.  In that short span of time, we've had group builds, build-offs and contests, among others.  Our membership grew and is steadily growing, and we're the first Philippine-based international Mecha Community to have an internationally sponsored Gunpla competition in the form of the Europe Gunpla Cup (incidentally, is still open for entries, at least for a week more), spearheaded by non other than Brush-painter extraordinaire, Kamm, and sponsored by none other than Hobby-Link Japan.

It's been one year, and we're actually celebrating that this weekend with a party.  Don's mentor, Kenny Lim aka, The Toymaker, will grace the event.  We were even able to get Malvin of GreatToysOnline to sponsor raffle prizes for the event, which will be held an an undisclosed location (iow: Don's place).  GreatToysOnlline has always been one of the go to places when it comes anything Gunpla or Anime, and Malvin has always been gracious and generous to give discounts.

And that segues into what I really want to talk about. It all started when Don made a JOKE on one of his blog posts.  I repeat, it was a JOKE, and Don clearly stated it was a such ON THE POST ITSELF.  The joke, being that, TT-Hongli kits were to be given away as raffle prizes during the anniversary party.  It seems certain people whom we cannot name added 1 and one (to make a nondescript number), with their inability to understand context, wanted to conclude or make it seem we actually support TT-Hongli kits, along side the fact that Malvin is sponsoring prizes, making it seem Malvin carried TTH products.

And the person, or persons as the case may be, actually told Malvin about it.

I've met and talked with Malvin a few times, enough to categorically say I know him personally.  I even bug him from time to time to get bigger discounts on kits I drool upon, and most of the times, he relents.  Suffice it to say that Malvin is a very nice guy.

So, after the "non-issue" sprouted, I immediately clarified it with Malvin and prompted this MAC FB post:

"We at TheMacForums have said it before and will say it again: WE DO NOT SUPPORT BOOTLEGS, even in the context of a BAD JOKE. I hope this makes it clear to anyone and everyone. 

—TheMACForums team"

It's a non-issue, but nonetheless, it had to be addressed properly, as if my previous rant post with regards to bootlegs, my constant reminders in the forum itself, and the absence of bootlegs in my collection itself, weren't enough indication that I personally don't support bootlegs.

Sadly, for the person who shall remain unnamed, the joke is on him.  I separated the next line, just case, the context-insensitive person decides to put 1 and two together this time to make another nondescript number and tell all his context-insensitive friends that MatX is actually an alien superbeing from Planet X sent here to conquer the world (if only I could).

Malvin, being the nice guy that he is, clearly understood the confusion.  Though he won't be able to attend the event, we'll be getting the items he has promised us this Saturday, on schedule, in time for the celebration in the afternoon.  Malvin is still sponsoring the prizes.  Malvin still supports MAC.  But, since he has given me huge discounts, in light of this poor attempt of discrediting MAC, I felt personally responsible still to correct the misconception that we we're actually going to have TTH products. 

We're one year old.  We plan to stay longer than just that.  We've done in a year what others have done in a decade.  I believe, no matter who our detractors are, generally speaking, the mere fact they feel the need to bring us down only proves we're actually doing good.  Aside from The Toymaker, we'll also be having Edmund Teo of HobbyMate, and a couple of Singaporean modelers, IzzaKu and Waylander gracing the event.  Together, the four of them are called the Poison Monkeys.

Here's to the next year, and the next, and the next...

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On another note, the Turn X project is on hold.  I'll be working on a super-secret original non-gunpla mecha project.