Singapore Toy and Comic Convention 2008 event report

Posted on Jun 28 in Comics, Drawings & Illustration, Events, Photography, Toysby adminPrint

Finally it arrived; the inaugural Singapore Toy & Comic Convention. Held at Suntec Convention Center, it occupied part of one large hall (think about 1/2 of the size of the typical PC show) and had Domuya, Nintendo, Lego, Bandai, Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro, among its exhibitors.

Getting in at the start of the day was not easy. Not only were there no signs indicating which of the many queues to join, there were no instructions on what to do at all. People who appeared were expected to fill up a form and join the normal queue, while those who preregistered online were supposed to join another long queue, get their passport, and then queue up AGAIN to get into the hall. I heard many many angry people at the counters asking what was the point of preregistering when people were just running into the hall when security was not looking. Anyway at the end of the day I heard the whole registration thing was dropped. So much for pre-event planning.

Once inside, the usual problems associated with PC shows presented themselves – Small aisles, too many people, and morons who bring prams to crowded places. Once again I saw fights almost erupt and quarrels in a number of places, over issues like prams rolling over toes, people stepping on each other, and so on. If I were to draw a chart, I’d be able to correlate incident frequency spiking during the redemption times; to put it simply, huge crowds built up around the redemption areas once the window period opened, and the entire aisle became a huge choke point. Just the sort of thing terrorists in Rainbox Six love.  I guess the event management company could take a hint from this and move redemption areas to quieter spots next time.

But enough of that. On with the event report.
Day One

Highlights

Large ball-jointed dolls are the rage now but I only saw one exhibitor dealing with those – that was Domuya, situated near the entrance. A nervous-looking staff member was watching my every move as I snapped away at his dolls, but I guess I’d be wide-eyed at everyone too if i’ve seen a few hundred people throng into my display in the last hour and take photos of my dolls from every angle possible.

Creepy displays by Domuya

Blythe dolls are also quite the in-thing these days, and there was a sizeable display of these just next to Domuya.

Blythe!

Hasbro had a great display in which their figures were categorized by year of distribution. There was a rather stuffy security guy directing everyone in to a single entrance but since I didn’t see the point of going in to see something I could see just as easily from outside I just stood outside and snapped away anyway.

Hasbro’s enviable Star Wars figure display

Some really nice designs from Imaginary Friends Studio’s Freedom Formula.

I love Bandai. They turn pieces of plastic into beautiful works of art. That’s why I love Gundam. And I’ve got to find some time to finish all those waiting for me in my collection. Maybe I can start when I retire.

Bandai’s awe-inspiring gundam display

One of the more popular urban vinyl lines is that of Tofu boy. I really have no idea why some fans find a dumpy, block-headed character cute enough to splurge $150 for a T-shirt on, but I guess there’s something out there that’s sure to appeal to someone, so…

Dooperdoo

Demonstrations

Besides some demonstrations there were also autograph sessions by that Gloomy Bear creator and some other artists.

Steering wheel and seat setup with force feedback

Live drawing demo by Imaginary Friends Studios

Costuming display by 501st Legion

Bandai’s Gundam Caravan. Reminds me of one of those concentration camp assembly lines in China.

Moviemania booth

Costuming event

Today’s theme was ‘family and Movie characters’, and that’s what we saw, along with a host of the now-traditional guys in military outfits with weapons-so-realistic-i-don’t-know-why-police-don’t shoot-on-sight’. The winner was that gold Stormtrooper guy, and the runner up was the Godzilla.

Day Two

As soon as I arrived at Suntec I had a shock because there was a queue on level 4. Knowing that the event was at level 6, I was shaking my head in disbelief that the queue had mushroomed all the way down.

Luckily, what happened was the Bearbrick collection, and only that, had been shifted to level 4. Since people didn’t have to work on sunday morning, they were willing to spend their time queueing to get a free bearbrick of questionable value, sort of like those Mcdonalds Hello Kitty queues of aunties and uncles who didn’t even collect that stuff. Not being that sort, I headed up.

The actual event queue was at level 6, and though there was still a queue, it was moving a lot faster than yesterday. I went to the door with the wrist tape they slapped on me yesterday, but they didn’t even check it and waved me in. So much for registration, and for that matter, pre-registration too.

Mostly the same

The crowd today was much more intense than yesterday. As for the displays, not many changes except for some shelves having a ’sold’ placard. As usual, lots of prams and old folks in wheelchairs who looked very uncomfortable with the low oxygen content in the air. I felt worried for them and wondered if they would need a Civil Defense escort out like at a PC show some years back.

Once again Mori Chakku of Gloomy Bear fame and Gary Erskine, known for that old comic Dan Dare (starring the Mekon!), were doing autographs and sketches. I managed to get some photos of them doing their thing as I was in before the crowd built up.

But I think today’s highlight were the anime cosplayers, who spilled out into the adjacent corridors and halls as it was way too difficult to maneuver inside for photos unless you have a 5mm wideangle lens.

Many more in the gallery below!

I didn’t stay for the competition… does anyone know who were the eventual winners? I only know that the overall winner of the day was the Vocaloid Miku; the one holding the leeks.

Anyway, not too bad for a first-time event, and I’ll be looking forward to any upcoming ones. Except for the crowd, that is.

Event Photo Gallery:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/96785691@N00/sets/72157605862536847/show/

6 Comments

• Chuang Shyue Chou says:

  June 29, 2008 at 12:41 am

  Haha! Good stuff!
• Chuang Shyue Chou says:

  June 29, 2008 at 12:41 am

  When does this end?
• PI Events says:

  July 1, 2008 at 8:12 pm

  Hi there! Your photos on here of STCC’08 are really great! Do consider joining our Photography Competition….you could win a Wacom tablet worth S$299.00! Check out the Photography Competition page under ‘Competitions’ on http://www.sgtoyandcomiccon.com for more info!
• sorbet says:

  July 2, 2008 at 8:56 pm

  yea nice pictures man! didnt manage to get many shots! ))=
• legomaniac says:

  August 8, 2008 at 1:36 pm

  cool! I went and did the gundam assembly thingy. haha got me addicted to gundam. immediately went and bought a few to bring home XD. anyways, Im surprised you didn’t report on the lego competition! not of interest to you? i hope not…our classmates joined the competition and built an ice kachang (i helped them build the F1 car to add in!!!!) and WE GOT FIRST!!!! anyway, just to inform other people that the lego competition existed. =)

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