It's Iron Man Fever @ Bugis Junction!

It seems I'm always in Singapore when awesome stuff happens.

I was in Bugis Junction last Thursday to shop when I discovered the Iron Man 3 hype train just happened to be in the vicinity. I was expecting like a little exhibit/event like what happened in Serangoon the last time I was in Singapore...I didn't expect something like the Become Iron Man experience actually being there!

In case you haven't heard, Marvel's Become Iron Man experience is an interactive "game" where you stand in front of a giant TV screen and a camera registers your movements (much like a Kinect) and lets you experience how it feels to be Tony Stark for like 5 minutes. You can watch the Mark 42 armor (the latest iteration worn by Tony Stark in Iron Man 3) latch onto your body, then use your own gestures to see yourself blast away with your repulsors and even fly around!

I first read about it during that big Iron Man event in Hysan Place, Hong Kong. Seeing it on video was glorious, so imagine my fanboy glee when I realized I'll get to experience it too! 

It was daunting at first, with almost everyone in the mall watching you flail your arms around firing imaginary repulsor blasts. But once you see the Mark 42 armor on the screen responding to your every move, you can't help but feel the signature Tony Stark swagger coming on.

Just behind the Become Iron Man experience is an exhibit by company Play Imaginative, showcasing their Super Alloy series of 1/4th and 1/6th scale diecast figures of the many armors featured in Iron Man 3. An impressive display, should anyone have the moolah to buy them all.

But my fun didn't stop there. My attention was directed to another awesome display just a few floors up from where I stood which featured two of my favorite things in the world: life-sized statues and Hot Toys!

It was in a store called Action City in Bugis Junction, and they boasted of a life-sized statue of the Mark 42 armor. It was a shutterbug magnet...I should know, even I couldn't resist taking a pic beside this bad boy!

They also had on display some cool Hot Toys items also connected to Iron Man 3, like the Tony Stark figure, the battle-damaged Iron Man Mark 7 seen in Marvel's The Avengers, and Hot Toys' new Power Pose line of poseable statues. I had to stop myself from dribbling from the mouth!

It's these kinds of exhibits and events that I like: interactive, impressive and in-your-face. If this doesn't get the fanboys like me all hot and bothered, I don't know how else they're gonna do it. What a way to kick-start the Iron Man 3 hype train!

The Become Iron Man virtual experience will be running in Bugis Junction until May 5, so if you want to know what being Iron Man feels like, there's no better place to be. Get to it!

It's good to be back. Thanks for reading!