Covering Day 1 of ToyCon 2009

Late post is late, but I only opened this blog recently, didn't I? Still, I thought I'd show off some of the pictures that I had taken from Day 1 of ToyCon 2009.

Despite the scary rumors of Influenza A (H1N1) floating in the Ortigas air, hundreds of fans of toys, hobbies, and collectibles converged en masse upon SM Megamall to be part of the 8th Philippine Toys, Hobbies, and Collectibles Convention, held during Independence Day weekend (13-14 June 2009).

While waiting in line on Day 1 of the con (Saturday), I observed to a buddy of mine that I was wondering how the local muggles were feeling: imagine, there was a Tekken tournament on the ground floor, and a con on the fifth - the geeks are out in force, the geeks are swarming the mall! And all they wanted to do was shop and do the groceries for the back-to-school crowd....



The top row shows photos from inside a special cordoned-off area inside the venue. That cordoned-off place was devoted to massive collections of memorabilia: vintage GI Joe figures, artwork, Barbie dolls, and others. In the pictures are a guy looking over collections of toy soldiers and pro wrestling figures, as well as someone's lovingly built and custom-painted RX-78 Gundam kit.

The second row shows two members of the Philippine Outpost of the 501st Legion of Stormtroopers (Vader's Fist), trooping as part of the festivities.

In the third row are a few cosplayers: the little movie-style Bumblebee is actually a rather cute little girl, who was apparently lovingly outfitted by both proud parents; and a group from Axis Powers Hetalia, with flags and matching little emoticons.

With the flu scare just at its height during the con, a lot of people came wearing face masks, and some were even smart enough to either wear costumes that incorporated masks, or covered their mouths and noses some other way (like with scarves or bandannas).

There was an amazing amount of merchandise on sale, and many at startlingly low prices; no wonder the con was packed all day Saturday! I myself nabbed one the fellow experiments of the little blue alien Stitch (from Disney's Lilo and Stitch), for only PHP100!

I've been going to local cons for years now, ever since the trend got started, and am happy to report that every year the cons get more and more ambitious, attracting more and more geeks and fellow otaku. Some cons are for games and gamers only, while others are for cosplayers only; the majority, however, are catch-all events, such as ToyCon. I can only hope the otaku scene gets just as varied here as it does in other countries! :)