Treefrog Goes to China! 2008 Manufacturers Tour (1 Viewer)

[Shannon Reuss]

Hi all! So the deal is I'm finding it very difficult to give you a play by play of our time here in Hong Kong due to a variety of factors (a main one being I have no energy left during the small amount of downtime we have and I can't put together two coherent sentences!) so I think we may have to settle for the cliff note version if we are to get anything at all. The second reason is I have loads of pictures that would greatly enhance the telling of the story but we're not at home to process them all. Jazzeum has kindly shrunk several for us (see above) but there are so many it would be way too much work to ask him to edit them all. So again, the bulk of the telling may have to wait until we return home.

In the meantime however I can tell you we are having a wonderful time and are really excited to be here. The weather has been overcast and foggy, warm and sunny and everything in between.

At the moment it is 7:30 pm and I have a beautiful view of various boats all lit up and gliding past my window with the lights of the city behind them and reflecting off the water. Everywhere I look I think "that would make a lovely post card."

We have met with and spent time with the crew at King & Country, Andy Neilson and his wife and daughter, John Jenkins (you'll enjoy his creative frog pictures), Robert, Elaine and Jerry at Patriot Models and Ken and Cynthia as well as new friends and acquaintances we've found along the way.

We've sampled new foods like deep-fried seaweed, sesame ice cream and a host of things I don't know the names of as well as found tastes of home like the hot ham and cheese panini we found at the Starbucks-like coffee shop Pacific Coffee. We've also found that Hong Kong has lots of great Indian food and have taken advantage of that. Speaking of food Pete and Ben have just returned with...a chicken sandwich from McDonalds? We've checked them out several times too.
More later...

 

[wadepat]

Hi Shannon,

Thanks for the update! It sounds like you are have a terrific time. How could you not, with good friends, good food, and wonderful scenery? As you are able and as your energy allows, please keep us informed of your adventure!

I am certainly looking forward to seeing all your pictures. I appreciate the fact that Brad has been helpful in resizing and posting some of your photos. Would you consider allowing some of the rest of us to do the same for you? I know there are members who would gladly receive, resize, and post pictures for you. Doing so would allow your pictures to be posted more quickly and would not take undue advantage of Brad's time and good will. Anyway, it is just a thought.

Continue to have a wonderful time, but return to us safe and sound!

Warmest personal regards,

Pat

 

[Wraith]

Would you consider allowing some of the rest of us to do the same for you? I know there are members who would gladly receive, resize, and post pictures for you. Doing so would allow your pictures to be posted more quickly and would not take undue advantage of Brad's time and good will. Anyway, it is just a thought.

Great idea Pat.
If you want to share them around Shannon, by all means stick me on the list of 'photo resizers'
Simon

 

[jazzeum]

Thanks for offers but that's part of what I do so I don't mind at all

 

[Peter Reuss]

Thanks guys (this is Shannon on Pete's account) but Pete informs me it is extremely difficult for him to even get the pics into an email to send to anyone so I think it will be a while before I get any more on the forum. I do appreciate all your offers to help though.
We made it to Shanghai today and are looking forward to taking a look around tomorrow and meeting with Rick Wang. Tonight we checked into our very beautiful hotel and had dinner with Peter Wang at his favorite local restaurant (I'm proud to say we all tried the jellyfish!). Ben loves steamed dumplings and Peter made him feel right at home with dumpling soup, fried flatbread and plenty of watermelon among the many tasty dishes we sampled.
After dinner we talked a little shop while Peter showed us some night sights including a man-made lake, beautiful architecture and plenty of people. We saw some really nice toy soldiers in a kiosk in one area--if I knew who made them I might pick up the line--they were really well done. They were metal but not painted and mostly knights.
That's it for tonight--hopefully I'll have a chance to give you all another update tomorrow.
Regards,

 

[Capitolron]

Thanks guys (this is Shannon on Pete's account) but Pete informs me it is extremely difficult for him to even get the pics into an email to send to anyone so I think it will be a while before I get any more on the forum. I do appreciate all your offers to help though.
We made it to Shanghai today and are looking forward to taking a look around tomorrow and meeting with Rick Wang. Tonight we checked into our very beautiful hotel and had dinner with Peter Wang at his favorite local restaurant (I'm proud to say we all tried the jellyfish!). Ben loves steamed dumplings and Peter made him feel right at home with dumpling soup, fried flatbread and plenty of watermelon among the many tasty dishes we sampled.
After dinner we talked a little shop while Peter showed us some night sights including a man-made lake, beautiful architecture and plenty of people. We saw some really nice toy soldiers in a kiosk in one area--if I knew who made them I might pick up the line--they were really well done. They were metal but not painted and mostly knights.
That's it for tonight--hopefully I'll have a chance to give you all another update tomorrow.
Regards,

Shannon

Be careful on those Toy Soldiers! You don't want to get "Shanghaied" - in Shanghai...yuck, yuck, yuck

Jungle Ron

 

[Peter Reuss]

Whew! My plan had been to post daily images of the trip, but every night we fall back to the hotel ready to sleep! I think I'll post some images and we'll add the commentary about each visit later.

I know the perception is that in each of our meetings with the manufacturers we simply sit down to review the upcoming release schedules to get the 'inside scoop.' The reality is that most of the time is spent discussing business strategies and marketing. Not exactly 'edge of the seat' stuff for a collector, but essential to a business like Treefrog. The more that they reveal about upcoming releases the more likely they are to have to kill us if we reveal it to anyone. Not being a person who likes to be killed, we of course keep the little that we know under wraps.

I know, I know...each person on the Forum says, "You can just tell me. I would NEVER share it with anyone." What's the fun of a secret if you can't share it?? That one person would tell one person, and Treefrog would have the Hong Kong (or Shangahi) mob breaking down our doors.

Without further ado, here are some images of the Frog on Tour.

Here's Andrew (Praetorian) and Patrick.

The Frog is taking over John Jenkins Designs. After a few quick sculpting lessons, the Frog is taking matters into his own hands.

 

[Peter Reuss]

One more of the Frog at JJD.

Here Shannon is with Robert and Jerry from Patriot.

Ben taking matters into his own hands at the K&C shop in Pacific Place.

The K&C shop at Pacific Place.

 

[Shannon Reuss]

Next round of photos has been sent for editing and will feature Ken Clarke of East of India (we're not sure exactly which ones made it through--we had some uploading issues).

 

[Peter Reuss]

Whew! It's been a long day of sight seeing in Hangzhou. If you want nature and peaceful spots in China, this is a great place to come!

Here are some pictures we haven't gotten posted yet. First we have Ken and Cynthia Clarke of East of India. We had a marvellous time with them, ending with a fine lunch on The Jumbo (a floating restaurant).

The view out of their office window is second to none!

Here are some of the samaurais that EofI offers (and which, for some reason, had not been available from Treefrog. That will be fixed soon).

Here we have 'the Frog' feeling quite at home in an old EofI box...

Lastly for tonight, Peter Wang of Figarti met us at the airport on Monday to welcome us to Shanghai.