I want to trim my MP transformers collection, but looking at the lists below, it is still a big number.
Worse, I have multiple of the same character for some.
First, I need to reduce the figures I want. Next is to cut down on multiple representations of the same character.
|Group|#fig|Want?|Notes| |---|---|---|+--| |Autobots| |Optimus Prime|–|Y|| |Skyfire|–|N|| |Carbots|11|Y|| |Minibots|6|Y|BB, CJ, Brawn, Gears, Huffer, WC| |Dinobots|5|N|Except MP-8| | | |Decepticons| |Megatron|–|Y|| |Soundwave|–|Y|| |Shockwave|–|Y|| |Reflector|–|Y|| |Seekers|3|Y|SS, TC, SW (no)| |Tapes|4|Y|Laserbeak, Ravage, Frenzy, Rumble (no)| |Insecticons|3|N|Shrapnel, Bombshell, Kickback| |Constructicons|6|Y||
Carbots: Jazz, Prowl, Bluestreak (no), Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Ironhide, Ratchet, Hound, Mirage, Trailbreaker, Wheeljack.
Wanted: 34 out of 44.
|Group|#fig|Want?|Notes| |---|---|---|+--| |Autobots| |Blaster|–|Y|| |Perceptor|–|Y|| |Carbots|8|Y|| |Minibots|5|Y|BC, Cosmos, PG, Seaspray, WP| |Tapes|4|N|Eject, Rewind, Ramhorn, Steeljaw| |Aerialbots|5|Y|| |Protectobots|5|N|| |Titans|1|Y|Omega Supreme| | | |Decepticons| |Seekers|3|N|Coneheads| |Triple Changers|2|Y|Astrotrain and Blitzwing| |Tapes|1|N|Buzzsaw| |Stunticons|5|Y|| |Combaticons|5|Y||
Carbots: Grapple, Hoist, Inferno, Red Alert (no), Skids, Smokescreen, Tracks, Hauler (no).
Wanted: 31 out of 46.
|Group|#fig|Want?|Notes| |---|---|---|+--| |Autobots| |Movie|9|Y|| |Triple Changers|2|Y|Sandstorm and Broadside| |Minibots|5|N|| |Throttlebots|6|N|| |Technobots|5|Y|| |Titans|2|N|Metroplex and Sky Lynx| | | |Decepticons| |Movie|3|Y|Galvatron (no), Cyclonus, Scourge| |Quintessons|1|N|Sharkticon| |Battlechargers|2|N|Runabout and Runamuck| |Triple Changers|1|Y|Octane| |Tapes|3|N|Ratbat, Slugfest, Overkill| |Predacons|5|N|| |Terrorcons|5|N|| |Titans|2|N|Trypticon, Unicron (yes)|
Movie: Hot Rod, Rodimus Prime (no), Ultra Magnus, Arcee, Blurr, Kup, Springer, Wheelie (no), Wreckgar (no).
Wanted: 17 out of 51.
|Group|#fig|Want?|Notes| |---|---|---|+--| |Autobots| |Punch|–|N|| |Titans|1|N|Fortress Maximus| |Headmasters|4|Y|Brainstorm, Chromedome, Hardhead, Highbrow| |Targetmasters|3|N|Crosshairs, Pointblank, Sureshot| |Trainbots|6|N|| | | |Decepticons| |Sixshot|–|N|| |Titans|1|N|Scorponok| |Headmasters|3|N|Mindswipe, Skullcruncher (yes), Weirdwolf| |Targetmasters|3|Y|Misfire, Slugslinger, Triggerhappy| |Triple Changers|2|N|Apeface, Snapdragon (yes)| |Misc|1|N|Banzai-Tron (yes)|
Wanted: 10 out of 26.
Time for another round of pruning!
I thought some of these were 'forever figures', but collecting criteria can change. I used to want a complete MP collection, but now I don't, so some of them don't make sense anymore.
Stomp was one of my first 3P figures. Its selling point to me was its googly eyes after being stomped by Devastator in the '86 movie. It was considered lightly greebled in its day, but now it stands out in a sea of very-flat toon aesthetics. Moreover, I decided I don't want MP Dinobots anymore.
I used to want three sets of Insecticons — they are a swamp. Later, I changed my mind. I sold BadCube and kept FansToys — I never bought MMC. But now I don't want MP representation of them any more.
I sold MP-36 and kept IT-01. Now I decided to sell it as well. I want Megatron at MP scale, but I will wait for a better one — FansToys, Magic Square? IT-01 has yellowed (a common problem), so will be selling at great loss.
When I first saw Radiatron, I thought it was so accurate to the original toy, at least in combined mode. Their train modes are quite chubby. Now I think I just go for the Legends figures by Siyang Culture.
I bought MMC Frenzy due to its pile driver gimmick. However, they don't really work as in the show. They pile way too quickly. In the show, the pile drivers are very slow. The figure scales very well with other MP figures in bot mode — the usual mini-tapes are way too small. However, I don't need this in MP scale anymore.
MMC Mirage. I've put it up for years. When will it ever sell?
I used to want three sets of Reflector — they are Decepticon army builder. I never got FansToys Spotter cos it was never reissued. I won't be buying it anymore — it is dated — but v2 may change my mind. I decided to sell MakeToys and keep KFC for now.
I am selling XTB Slugslinger after getting it for around two weeks. This has to be a record. I remember I sold XTB Grump (Gears) pretty quickly too. XTB released MX-68T, the toy deco, that has a more 'Headmaster' head. I'm usually not interested in toy deco, but this time XTB gives user-applied stickers instead of tampo'ing the figure.
These will take some time to sell, based on previous experience.
ST reported that "almost 95% of couples in Singapore report being happily married", based on the Family Trends Report 2026 by MSF.
This time, there was no huge controversy, though there were questions how this reconciled with high divorce rate.
This was the data ST referred to. A full 94.9% were happy.
|Degree of happiness|| |---|---| |Perfect|8.1%| |Extreme happy|22.7%| |Very happy|30.7%| |Happy|33.4%| |A little unhappy|3.7%| |Fairly unhappy|0.9%| |Extremely unhappy|0.5%|
Is this reliable? There are three more charts.
||R/ship going well|Will confide|Consider divorce| |---|---|---| |All the time|19.9%|25.4%|0.9%| |Most of the time|57.6%|37.1%|1.5%| |More often than not|15.3%|15.8%|1.3%| |Occasionally|5.3%|15.0%|8.0%| |Rarely|1.5%|4.7%|22.1%| |Never|0.4%|2.1%|66.2%|
First, "relationship going well", the truly positive is only 77.5% (all or most the time).
The "will confide in spouse" data does not mean anything. Some people like to keep things to themselves.
For truly positive, "considered divorce" must be Never. It is even lower at 66.2%. Even 'Rarely' means there are small cracks, and if not mended, will grow into big cracks. If you think about divorce occasionally, it means there are unhappy occasions, and they will grow over time. This calls into question the 'degree of happiness' data, though the positive percentage is still high at 88.3%.
Following our alt-286, we will enter 32-bit with our alt-386. :clap:
We can finally extend all registers to 32-bit and get a linear 4 GB memory space. No more messing with 24-bit address registers!
Or is it?
32-bit computing has a good run. It started in the late 1970s and lasted to early 2010s. Even today, 32-bit suffices for productivity apps. 64-bit became more common as the need to process >2 GB data arose: video editing, games, database, big data models, 3D modeling, machine learning, scientific simulations, virtual machines and so on. Wow, that's a long list!
What they want is >2 GB data, not necessarily 64-bit processing.
I use 2 GB limit because a 32-bit OS typically did not expect a single program to use >2 GB of memory. It was a lot of memory in the early 1990s.
Extending to 40 bits gives 5 byte address, which is awkwardly sized. So, let's use 48 bits — this makes the address 6 bytes. 48-bit allows us to address 256 TB of memory. This is future-proof — famous last words. :-D
So now we are back to asymmetric data register (32-bit) and address register (48-bit) again. Good thing is that we are already used to dealing with it. :lol:
The 8086 supports 8-bit and 16-bit displacements. The 80386 supports 8-bit and 32-bit displacements in 32-bit mode. Should we support just two, or should we support more?
||8-bit|16-bit|24-bit|32-bit|48-bit| |---|+--|+--|+--|+--|+--| |Cond jump|✓|✓|–|–|–| |Direct jump|✓|✓|✓|–|–| |Direct call|–|.|✓|✓|–| |Stack vars|✓|✓|–|–|–| |Struct members|✓|✓|–|–|–| |Array indexing|✓|✓|–|–|–| |Memory addr|–|.|✓|✓|–| |IP-relative|–|✓|✓|.|–| |Constants|✓|✓|–|✓|–| |Data pointers|–|.|✓|✓|✓| |Function pointers|–|.|✓|✓|.|
Key: ✓ = useful, frequently used, '.' = nice to have, but not really needed, – = not needed
We do not want 48-bit immediate displacement, it makes the instruction too long. We may not want 32-bit as well. x86 has it, but RISC don't, and they do just fine.
We will use IP-rel addressing to load 32-bit and bigger immediates values.
Does it make sense to bring back memory models? :lol:
Memory model determines the default pointer size — how much code/data is addressable.
Code and data are separate, so it can be small code with flat data.
Most programs should fit in compact code and flat data. If the program handles data in streaming form, compact data is sufficient most of the time.
DoS (Department of Statistics) just released the General Household Survey 2025 report. It immediately caused a hooha in local forums when ST reported "about 1 in 7 S'pore families earn at least $30k a month". There was widespread disbelief.
How could there be so many, so high?
Many posters on HWZ's EDMW also expressed their shock. This is ironic given that they often used $20k/month pay as a benchmark.
One common explanation is that there is no real increase. Households now have more contributors because adult children stay with their parents due to high house prices.
Some say those who are in disbelief have been left behind... :sweat:
First, let's look at the Monthly Household Market Income table:
|Year|< 3k|< 6k|< 9k|< 12k|< 15k|< 20k|< 25k|< 30k|< 35k|35k+| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |2020|19.7%|15.6%|14.3%|12.3%|9.5%|11.0%|6.4%|3.8%|2.4%|5.0%| |2025|14.6%|12.2%|10.9%|10.7%|10.0%|12.9%|9.1%|6.2%|4.4%|9.0%| |2020 cum|0.0%|19.7%|35.3%|49.6%|61.9%|71.4%|82.4%|88.8%|92.6%|95.0%| |2025 cum|0.0%|14.6%|26.8%|37.7%|48.4%|58.4%|71.3%|80.4%|86.6%|91.0%|
This is the first time income above $20k is broken down. In 2020, we only knew 17.6% earn above $20k. Even then, $20k was too low a bar. It is now raised to $35k — and almost 10% are above it.
$20k used to be 70th to 80th percentile (upper middle-income). It is now only 60th to 70th percentile (slightly above middle income).
Related stats:
||2020|2025| |---|---|---| |Avg|$12,396|$16,159| |Avg per member|$4,111|$5,579| |Avg employment income|$3,494|$4,439| |Median|$9,099|$12,446| |Median per member|$2,952|$4,160|
The average income has gone up significantly and 80% of income is from employment.
The average household size according to the above table is 2.90 (avg) and 2.99 (median). I don't know why they are different, or why they are different from the average household size (3.1).
Market income includes employer CPF, 1/12 of annual bonus and non-employment income, e.g. investments, rental, CPF payout. Some people say this is why the figures are on the high side.
For a single-income at $30k, the employer CPF contribution is only an extra $1.36k. For dual-income at $15k each (anything above $8k, actually), the employer CPF contribution is $2.72k.
If we assume a conservative 2-months bonus, it is $3.33k at $20k. (Using estimated employment income.)
Let's assume a more conservative non-employment income of 15% — $4.5k from a mix of investments and rental.
After adjusting all the factors, we get a figure of ~$21k monthly pay for $30k market income.
|Year|Total|1.5k+|2k+|3k+|6k+|9k+|12k+|15k+|20k+|22.5k+| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |2020|1,945.8k|9.7%|17.5%|34.1%|70.1%|84.2%|91.4%|94.3%|96.9%|97.8%| |2024|2,067.2k|3.6%|9.4%|23.8%|61.3%|78.4%|88.1%|91.9%|95.6%|96.7%| |2025|2,100.4k|2.1%|9.1%|22.0%|59.2%|77.1%|87.2%|91.3%|95.3%|96.6%|
It includes 1/12 of annual bonus, but excludes employer CPF. It tops out at $22.5k — top 10% of EP holders. Candidates earning over this are exempted from standard EP point system.
In this table, if you earn between $20k and $22.5k, you are in the 95th to 97th percentile.
From 2020 to 2022, it's like lower-paying jobs just... disappeared.
There is another source of info: Taxable Individuals by Assessed Income Group from IRAS. It has only up to 2024, and it goes by tax residents. Data for 2024:
||> 0|> 20k|> 25k|> 30k|> 40k|> 50k|> 60k|> 80k|> 100k|> 150k|> 200k|> 300k|> 400k|> 500k|> 1mil| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |Number|74.9k|69.4k|125.7k|362.0k|295.0k|222.2k|169.6k|139.8k|213.1k|313.5k|150.9k|128.0k|50.9k|30.3k|9.2k| |Avg pay|$0|$1.8k|$2.1k|$2.7k|$3.4k|$4.2k|$5.8k|$6.9k|$9.4k|$13.2k|$18.6k|$26.4k|$34.2k|$50.8k|$156.8k| |%-tile|0.0%|3.2%|6.1%|11.4%|26.6%|39.0%|55.4%|61.3%|70.3%|83.4%|89.8%|95.2%|97.3%|98.3%|99.6%|
Avg pay is total assessable income in the band divided by the number of people in that band divided by 13 (w/ AWS).
How to read the table: if your assessable income is $200k - $300k (avg monthly pay of $18.6k to $26.4k), you are in the 90th to 95th percentile.
There is no figure for non-tax paying residents. I took the number of residents who earned less than $1.5k in 2024 — 74.9k. It is not accurate because 'residents' is not the same as 'tax residents', but it is much better than 0. This allows us to get income percentile for total employed population.
I blame high COE on easy loan and commerical use. I'm not so sure anymore after looking at this table. There are just too many high earners. There are more people earning $150k to $200k (313.5k) except for the $30k to $40k band (362.0k).
These people can own a car comfortably — car price should not exceed annual pay, remember?
||2020|2025| |---|---|---| |1 person|16.0%|16.7%| |2 persons|22.6%|23.8%| |3 persons|20.4%|22.6%| |4 persons|20.1%|19.9%| |5 persons|11.9%|10.9%| |6+|9.0%|6.1%| |Avg size|3.2|3.1|
To get average size of 3.2 in 2020, the 6+ avg is 6.x. In 2025, the 6+ avg size is 7.x.
The way I interpret this is, there are fewer 6-member households, leaving behind 7-members and above.
By living arrangement:
||2020|2025| |---|---|---| |Married w/ children|50.4%|47.6%| |Married w/o children|16.8%|19.1%| |Lone parent|9.3%|6.8%| |One person|16.0%|16.7%| |Others|7.5%|9.8%|
'Others' here can mean: grandparents w/ grandchildren, siblings-only, mixed relatives (e.g. uncle w/ nephew), divorced person living with widowed parent, elderly living only with domestic worker, unrelated roommates. The category is very broad!
The definition of lone-parent is very specific and may not be what you think. The household must:
This table is not very useful, it is more useful when broken down by age group.
||Total|< 35|< 50|< 65|65+| |---|---|---|---|---|---| |Married w/ children|47.6%|34.0%|56.7%|55.2%|31.6%| |Married w/o children|19.1%|27.4%|14.8%|12.5%|29.8%| |Lone parent|6.8%|6.4%|5.3%|9.8%|5.0%| |One person|16.7%|18.2%|14.5%|13.9%|22.3%| |Others|9.8%|14.0%|8.7%|8.7%|11.3%|
For 2020:
||Total|< 35|< 50|< 65|65+| |---|---|---|---|---|---| |Married w/ children|50.4%|39.0%|60.3%|56.4%|30.2%| |Married w/o children|16.8%|25.0%|11.3%|11.4%|30.6%| |Lone parent|9.3%|6.5%|8.6%|11.9%|7.4%| |One person|16.0%|19.2%|14.2%|13.6%|21.6%| |Others|7.5%|10.3%|5.7%|6.8%|10.2%|
Can we tell if households now have extra contributors? Not directly, but indirect evidence says no. If only there is a number of contributors per household figure...
||2020|Median time|2025|Median time| |---|---|---|---|---| |Public transport|57.7%|50 mins|60.1%|60 mins| |Taxi/PHV|3.1%|30 mins|2.5%|30 mins| |Car|21.1%|30 mins|21.2%|30 mins| |Motorcycle|3.4%|30 mins|2.9%|30 mins| |No transport|9.8%|8 mins|9.7%|5 mins|
(Does not add up to 100% cos I omitted a few categories.)
I find surprising is that only 60.1% of the people take public transport to work. A full 20% drive! Wow, that's a lot.
There is breakdown by type of property, which I think is more revealing.
||1 - 2-rm|3-rm|4-rm|5-rm n Ex|Condo n Apart|Landed|Others| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |Public transport|70.2%|69.9%|65.1%|59.5%|48.9%|32.6%|46.5%| |Taxi/PHV|1.6%|2.1%|2.2%|2.1%|4.1%|3.0%|4.2%| |Car|4.6%|7.8%|14.8%|23.2%|36.6%|51.4%|14.4%| |Motorcycle|3.5%|3.5%|4.1%|2.9%|0.7%|0.4%|0.0%| |No transport|14.9%|12.2%|9.7%|8.6%|8.1%|11.1%|31.4%|
'Others' is where the surveyed person stays with someone else without charge.
This must be used together with the following table:
||1 - 2-rm|3-rm|4-rm|5-rm n Ex|Condo n Apart|Landed|Others| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |%-age|7.3%|16.6%|31.2%|22.1%|17.9%|4.7%|0.2%| |Household size|1.9|2.4|3.2|3.5|3.1|4.1|--|
51.4% of Landed residents drive, but they are only 4.7% of the total population.
For travelling time, median is not enough. We need at least 20th and 90th percentile. We also need breakdown by area.
