Last Sunday, I cycled to the local Bedok South market to buy some soya bean drink. In front of a toy shop, the owner has installed a 3-track motorised Tamiya toy car racing circuit. When I first stopped to watch there was a bunch of about 10 or 12 young boys (Chinese and Malays who were no more than 15 years old) crowded around the track but I noticed something immediately. Only 2 of the boys, Chinese brothers, were placing their cars in the track. Even though they each had a toy car in hand, everyone else (Chinese and Malay kids inlcuded) just watched them silently. I noticed some of the other kids sheepishly slipping their cars into the track only when the brothers' cars were not in the track.
The cars belonging to the brothers were very fast and zoomed round the track. The other kids were obviously impressed. But that was not the only reason why they stayed out. I could see that the 2 Chinese boys whose father was standing behind them looked rather proud. And when one of the Malay kids looked admiringly at one of their cars as it was picked up, one of the brothers said to him in Hokkien vulgarity something like "what the fuck are you looking at?". I was shocked that the father did nothing but I figured that it must have been happening for some time and the man had done nothing all the while or probably worse condoned what his kids did. From then on I looked straight in the direction of those 2 boys and noticed that they knew that what they did was not right. For I could see that in their eyes when they sneaked a look at my direction once a while.
When one of the brothers' cars jumped the track, a Malay kid picked the car up and placed it back into the track but the Chinese kid did not even show any appreciation. Given his arrogance and his remark to the other Malay kid earlier I angrily told the Malay kid in Malay that those Chinese kids were bad mannered (kurang ajar) and they should not pick their car up for them anymore, and their cars were faster because they had better batteries. I wasn't sure but figured so as there were not many variations I could think of for such simple toys.
The Hokkien kid that said the vulgarity earlier sensed my displeasure at him and knew I was talking about the batteries. So when another Malay kid, a rather plump (in a cute way) kid of 10 or so, placed his car in the track but the car went in a much slower pace than the brothers, I asked him if he knew what caused the difference. And to my surprise, the perviously arrogant Hokkien kid joined in and offered his advice by shouting to the Malay kid to get "GP batteries". So I gave this plump Malay kid some money to buy some of those GP batteries which cost $1.20 for two. Another skinny Malay kid wanted a set too so I passed him some money and asked him to go get it.
As it turned out I discovered that there are faster motors that cost $19.90 while slower ones cost $5.90. And there were fast-drain batteries that were better than others. I asked the 2 Malay kids if there are rechargeable batteries and if they are better. They said yes and I gave them $50 to get them. They cost $10 a pair.
Also found that there are more variables. Some kids add lead weights to the cars and has foam tires instead of original rubber ones. So, I tried to explain to some of the Malay kids crowding around me then (they must have heard about my gifts by then) how they should play around with the variables or combinations and see what is best for the track, not necessarily one combination fits all etc. But I could see that all except the skinny one was not really paying attention (may be they just wanted some fun and not interested in figuring things out). The skinny kid also thanked me 2 or 3 times for the batteries. He will be grow up to be different.
At the end, I thought how arrogant the Hokkien kids were earlier and all because they had more expensive motors and batteries that probably cost no more than $20 each. I felt like going to get a few top end sets and give it to some kids to 'compete' against those arrogant brothers!
But first, need some quick education. Must surf the net to find out what Tamiya has to offer…..
No comments:
Post a Comment