I made a trip down to the 2011 Singapore Toy Game & Comic Convention (STGCC) which is an annual event for all geeks to gather under one roof to do all things geeky. Oddly, for an event which is probably inspired by the famous San Diego Comic Con, the localised version seems more like an anime cosplay event instead.
The whole event hall was hardly packed on a Sunday afternoon and there is definitely a need to gather more shops and organisations to be more involved in future conventions.
Let me break down the catergories for you :
Toys – There are quite a few booths for this but nothing more than stuff that you can see on a Sunday afternoon at the Chinasquare flea market…and in fact there are MORE stalls selling toys there.
That being said, it is really great to see Hong Kong’s Hot Toys setting up a booth and displaying their awesome collection which some are available for pre-order. The sight of Bespin Luke Skywalker really made me wanna whip out my credit card and buy it…although it’s really cool for me to see the Christopher Reeves Superman which is coming out at the end of the year…which I’ve pre-ordered. heh heh heh…
Games – The big boy of this category would definitely go to Nintendo’s 3DS booth which offered attendees some hands-on with the new console. Unfortunately though, that is pretty much it. The other stuff that can be grouped under this category are some anime card game and some Tamiya toy car thingy. I know. WTF right?
Comics – WHERE THE FUCK ARE THE GODAMM COMICS?!?
This is the most disappointing aspect of it. The only comics I do see are from Planerds (which is from Harris) and Kinokouniya did something, although I can’t remember what now. And this dude who sells vintage comics really gets my thumbs up. This is what comics cons should have. Comic fucking books!
Best of the Rest –
Singpost somehow managed to tie-in with something relevant. Marvel comic stamps! OMG, I liked the idea, but too bad, I don’t really keep stamps. Cool idea though.
Popcornpop – this is one of my fav shops in Singapore. They sell lots of posters and Japanese small sheet posters which usually have some alternative but cooler designs. Located at the Esplanade. Go check them out.
Overall, it could really do much much better, but lets be honest…10 years ago, we do not even have anything close to this, so I guess 1/10 of a comic con is better than no con at all. I just wish though, they could combine all these different ones (like the anime convention and..dunno what ) as ONE. Its pretty boring to see the same booths two different conventions and all that cosplayers really need to brush up and do something out of the box.
Took some pics though. Enjoy! 🙂
