How to Spot Fake Moshi Moshi Handsets

There are a lot of imitation products out there. For some, this is the best way to know and measure the success of a product. Problem is, people aren't getting the quality products they are supposed to. There's a reason why a product is priced like such and it is something cheaper imitation products won't be able to deliver.

For Native Union's Moshi Moshi, it didn't take that long before China manufacturers copied their design. This handset was already here 4 to 5 years ago but the company that imported it now made it famous, thus, the proliferation of imitation handsets.

Here's a guide on how to spot the imitation units of Native Union's Pop Phone:

If you have more questions on verifying the real and imitation one with regards to Native Union products, leave a message at the comment section below and I'll do my best to reach them and answer all your inquiries. Thanks!

Christmas City 2011 - Updated Plarail Layout and City Lights (Part 1)

Before this post, we thought our Plarail layouts were already final. I was wrong. I came home from Hong Kong bringing some Plarail stuff not available here in the Philippines! In other news, you might want to check out the photos below! Half of the city has lights already!

The red loop as seen in the photo above costs $32 hkd. Model number of that one is the R-10. It will save you money if buy the R10 loop for making U-turns, rather than buying the normal curves. It will also require less space.

Christmas City 2011 - Railroad (Plarail) final layout [Plarail patterns]

Finally, we have finished doing the layout for the railroad. The railroad we used is Plarail, made by Tomy. From the tables below, the train climbs up to our electronic fire place. Below, you can see photos of the entire city, portion by portion.

We now have 3 train sets. 2 passenger type trains and one cargo train. The cargo train has a snow plow in front of it (to fit the Christmas theme) and we bought additional cargo cars for the train to pull. As seen in the photo above, there's a bridge. This part is the government part. This is where the town hall fire station, hospital (bank turned hospital) and police station is based. When the train goes up, it connects to the photo below...

Christmas City 2011 - Layout Testing w/ Tracks

It's already late in the evening and I just want to post an update on our Christmas City 2011 project. This week, we've spent around 6,000 pesos on the new Tomy tracks. This is the first year we encircled the whole city with Tomy tracks and bought 2 additional Tomy passenger trains.

Our Christmas City 2011 - 40% Done

Why 40% if it looks finished already?
-We haven't connected the train tracks above the fireplace yet(20%) - Very challenging since I didn't want to buy a lot of those yellow supports.
-The building have no lights yet (30%)
-Final touches and accessories (10%)

The train you can see on the tracks above (Bottom center) is from the Tomy train set I bought last year. It has a snow plow in front which can remove snow balls (seen below) as the train goes around. To make it longer, I attached 2 sets of the train body with containers. Check out the containers below.

Christmas City 2011 - Platform and Space Estimate

Little by little, we are building our Christmas city. Unlike other years where we finish everything in one entire day, this time, we decided to take it lightly. Tonight, we placed the white cloth as the platform over the (6) tables and on top of the electronic fire place (will take a photo of it soon). Also, as planned this year, there will be tunnels and mountains made of papier-mâché. I'm not sure if it will push through but I hope it does.

The structures below is not all yet. We have around 15 more structures to include and that isn't the final layout. We just wanted to see the available area left for the road and railroad track. Apparently, only a small space is left. On the far end of the photo (upper right), you can see a bunch of trees that looks like a forest. Those trees will be individually placed besides each house.

Up next? Train tracks? Road? Building lightings? Watch out :)

Christmas City 2011 - New Buildings (Part 2)

Just yesterday, I posted the first 10 new houses for this year's city. Below, allow me to share with you guys the next 10 houses that we will add to the Christmas village this year.

The fine harvest winery and the J Keaton clock emporium is a double I think. Anyway, the city is so huge now that people won't notice the double structures so I guess it's okay. If you want us to create a Christmas city for you, just let me know :) I'd be more than happy to provide you with a set of house and other stuff you'll need to make your Christmas village dream come true :) (My email is at the end of this post)

Christmas City 2011 - New Buildings (Part 1)

Our stairs from the the top to the ground floor has garland now! Lights are actually switched on and you can feel the Christmas spirit inside the house already. Well, at least when going up and down the stairs.

As I've said in my "Christmas City Preparation blog", mom has been buying dozen of houses yearly! This year, she bought 20 new structures for our Christmas village! Since it's very hard to take note which structures we already have, we have a lot of "doubles". What we do is we sell them so we can buy other unique structures. (Interested in the doubles? email me at chef_tonio (yahoo) dot com)