So much more beautiful in its toon colors. Too bad it is still quite heavily greebled.
The parts prone to yellowing have been changed. I expect high demand for this.
Remold of SS86 Bumblebee. I felt BB was not toon enough, but CJ is. The chibi car mode is perfect. However, the colors are off — gray crotch, black limbs and black windscreen. They are supposed to be black, gray and light blue. I'll consider buying if I can paint them.
The taxman has caught 279 high-income earners to date for using sham arrangements such as setting up private companies to receive their income to avoid paying more tax.
Out of this group, the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) probed 124 cases from 2021 to 2025 and clawed back $49 million in additional tax.
All but one of these cases involved taxpayers extracting profits as tax-exempt dividends or interest-free shareholder loans.
Unlike tax evasion, which is a crime involving hiding and falsifying income, tax avoidance by channelling funds through various arrangements is not an offence, but these moves can result in additional taxes and surcharges being levied if there is no real purpose for these transactions other than paying less tax.
Cases involving such taxpayers were highlighted recently when the High Court dismissed the bid of three doctors to challenge the decision of IRAS to levy more taxes on their total incomes.
Some of these errant taxpayers thought they could avoid the higher personal tax rate – 24 per cent for those with income exceeding $1 million – by channelling the bulk of their earnings to their companies because corporate profits are taxed at just 17 per cent here.
After-tax profits can be declared as dividends and paid to shareholders, who do not have to pay personal income tax on them.
These private outfits paid even less corporate taxes in reality because companies enjoy various concessions aimed at spurring growth and entrepreneurship.
But instead of using profits to expand business and hire more employees, these high-income earners merely used the structure to channel “tax-exempt” dividends and even non-genuine “shareholders’ loans” to themselves.
To deal with these taxpayers, IRAS took action under Section 33 of the Income Tax Act, which empowers it to disregard or vary any contrived arrangement and claw back the taxes that should have been paid.
In the recent dispute, the doctors challenged IRAS’ decision to conduct further tax assessments on their dividends and shareholders’ loans they paid to themselves from 2013 to 2018 through various private companies they had set up.
But the court upheld IRAS’ move to strike down their contrived schemes, finding that the doctors’ companies were mainly used as a conduit to pay less tax.
For instance, one of the doctors claimed to earn only $5,000 and $6,000 a month from his companies, but had received dividends and shareholders’ loans totalling more than $12 million over the six years.
With its now court-sanctioned action, IRAS can proceed to view the dividends and loans as part of the doctor’s own income and tax him accordingly.
In a statement to The Straits Times, IRAS said it takes a firm view on artificial or contrived arrangements that are put in place to avoid tax.
“Self-employed professionals, like all taxpayers, are expected to ensure that their tax affairs reflect the commercial and economic reality of their arrangements,” it added.
With effect from the year of assessment 2023, those caught for using contrived schemes to avoid taxes will have to pay a 50 per cent surcharge on the amount they should have paid.
This penalty is similar to that imposed on real estate investors who use sham agreements to avoid paying the additional buyer’s stamp duty when buying more properties.
This means that if the total additional tax payable is $200,000, the errant taxpayer will have to pay a $100,000 surcharge, or $300,000 in all to IRAS.
In many of these cases, those caught claimed their accountants or lawyers had advised them on the schemes.
On such excuses, IRAS said that taxpayers remain responsible for their tax affairs and should exercise caution when engaging tax agents and relying on advice they receive. “Tax agents are expected to provide advice that is consistent with Singapore’s tax laws. For errant tax agents, IRAS may refer matters of professional misconduct to the relevant professional bodies empowered to take disciplinary action,” it added.
Corporate income tax is 17%. Personal income tax goes up to 24%. As soon as you hear this, you can imagine there will be schemes to avoid paying more than 17%.
(Tax rate changes from 15% to 18% at $160k, then 19% at $200k.)
Because of incentives for startups and entrepreneurship, the first $100k or $200k are taxed very low. This reduces the threshold where this scheme becomes favourable. I guess it is above $80k — tax rate changes from 7% to 11.5%. This is quite a low bar.
I'm sure the tax-free dividend loophole was used once it became law in 2003. And before that, interest-free shareholder loans had always been available.
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%.
