Author Archives: cookingwithmigs

I cook with LOVE

There Can Be Only One (And I Waited Four Days For Him)

Makati Cinema Square, 1986 There was a cinema across from my school when I was still in the Philippines. Makati Cinema Square, right there, sitting between my classroom and my dad’s office like it had been placed there on purpose. Some afternoons that’s exactly what it felt like. That’s where we watched Highlander. Christopher LambertContinue reading “There Can Be Only One (And I Waited Four Days For Him)”

Hannibal — A Gift, a Brush, and a Plan That Came Together

Part of my childhood was watching a lot of 80s TV. Saturday mornings, after school afternoons, weekends on the couch. And right up there among the best of them was The A-Team. Four ex-Army Special Forces soldiers, branded as war criminals for a crime they didn’t commit, breaking out of prison and becoming heroes forContinue reading “Hannibal — A Gift, a Brush, and a Plan That Came Together”

Captain Jack Sparrow – My First Barbie

Unlike today, my generation only knew two genders. You were either a BOY or GIRL. And if you were a boy, the rules were simple. Toy guns. Cars. He-Man. Robots. GI Joe. That was the list. Full stop. Pink and Barbie Dolls was for girls. Everyone knew that. Fast forward to 2011. Pirates of theContinue reading “Captain Jack Sparrow – My First Barbie”

Six SEALs — Remembering the Navy Sillies

1990. Navy SEALs hit the cinemas. Charlie Sheen, Michael Biehn, a team of elite operators taking on the bad guys. For a group of young blokes with airsoft guns and way too much energy, that film was everything. We had a team of five. And every single time we played, we were the SEALs orContinue reading “Six SEALs — Remembering the Navy Sillies”

May The Fourth be with you— The Figure I Could Never Leave Behind

May the 4th. Star Wars Day. A day for everyone who ever looked up at a galaxy far far away and never quite looked away. That includes me. I was seven years old the first time I saw Star Wars. Not in a cinema. At home, with the family, after school. My older brother, aContinue reading “May The Fourth be with you— The Figure I Could Never Leave Behind”

This Is SPARTA — Finding Leonidas in Geelong

March 9, 2007. The roar of an angry king shouting “This is SPARTA” rocked cinemas everywhere. Zack Snyder’s 300 had arrived — on IMAX and conventional screens — and nothing was quite the same after that. Every guy all of a sudden wanted to be a warrior. That included me. There was always something aboutContinue reading “This Is SPARTA — Finding Leonidas in Geelong”

Dieter — The Wehrmacht Soldier I Found for $45

In my early days of discovering 1:6 scale figures, I had a routine. Suburb to suburb. Toy stores, thrift shops, op shops, swap meets, boot sales. If there was a chance a figure was sitting on a shelf somewhere waiting to be found, I was going to find it. On one of those hunting tripsContinue reading “Dieter — The Wehrmacht Soldier I Found for $45”

You! Yes, You! — Finding Gunnery Sergeant Hartman at a Car Boot Sale

There are Saturdays where you get up, drive to a car boot sale and come home with a bag of nothing in particular. And then there are Saturdays where you get up, drive to a car boot sale in Mount Waverley, and come home with Gunnery Sergeant Hartman screaming insults at you from a box.Continue reading “You! Yes, You! — Finding Gunnery Sergeant Hartman at a Car Boot Sale”

Roscoe Brooks — More than just a green army man

After Tony Montana came Roscoe Brooks. My second 1/6 scale figure. And the one that sent me down an entirely different rabbit hole. So after scoring that Tony Montana piece, i could not stop researching about this line of figures that was all new to me. Facebook was pretty new back then so the groupsContinue reading “Roscoe Brooks — More than just a green army man”