Singapore Toy Game & Comic Convention 2011

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! 🙂

At least he’s not kung fu fightin’

Gamescom Coverage : WTF is Tera Online?

Normally MMORPGes don’t interest me in the slightest, but this caught my eye, if only for the simply superb Haters Gonna Hate strut that beardogbeaver thing has going for it. It also seems to take a more dynamic, arcade-ish approach to combat, which can only be a good thing in a dreary crowd of WoW clones. While the art assets, animation and texture work are technically great, the art direction for the human characters seem straight out of the NCSoft playbook, even though this isn’t a NCS product. The genre really needs to take bigger design risks now that player numbers are reaching saturation levels, and I don’t mean pauldrons.

Scott Pilgrim Vs the World Video Mashup

I really really really loved the soundtrack.  The movie, I think is pretty good.

But the track from t his mashup which samples both is mind-blasting-ly awesome! (yes, I made up a word)

SCOTT PILGRIM - Fight! (1-Year Anniversary Video Remix)

As good as the video editing was, it was the track that really stood out for me.  The sampling of Eye of the Tiger, You gotta fight for your right (to party), Cheryl Cole(!!!) Fight for this love into Metric’s  “Black Sheep” is pretty much genius and totally sold it for me.

Ironically, I wish the track were a little shorter and tighter by dropping some of the repeated dialogue, which would make this even more awesome, but kudos to Osymyso, who’s remix is very much like a 85 hit combo move in my opinion.

Original Source : http://vimeo.com/27292220

Ghost Rider – Spirit of Vengeance Trailer

Best Sequel Ever? Not a tough act to follow

There are movies that are so bad, it’s actually fun to watch.

And then, there’s Ghost Rider.

The 2007 film was so (pardon the pun) Goddamm terrible, I would not even recommend it to my worst enemies…made me furious just to discuss it and made me want to punch Nic Cage in the face.

Amazingly, 5 years on, Marvel will be releasing a sequel to this piece of shit…but what is more scary, it actually looks pretty good.

However, why the …er.. Hell they still stuck with Nic Cage is beyond me.

What is also interesting, is the Marvel Knights branding which I think may be a step into the right direction by the studio to bring a darker (and hopefully less lame) turn.

If I ran Marvel studios, I’d just attempt to make a universe where Ghost Rider & Dr Strange and Punisher & Daredevil exists in their own Marvel Universe where lots of crazy shit can happen that doesn’t need to involve Iron man and his amazing friends. But lets save that conversation for another day.

Right now, let’s enjoy the trailer which looks slightly promising.

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance- Official Trailer