Anime Festival Asia 2013 (AFA13)

Sorry for the wait. Having an extra day of AFA this year adds another couple of hundred pics to sort through you know. Lol. Let's get to it.  

Here are the galleries for those who just want to see pics:

General
Toys
Cosplay (General)
Cosplay Singles Competition

AFA was back at the Suntec Convention and Exhibition Centre. This was my first visit there since it was renovated. I love the multi-screen wall at the front. Perhaps next time we can watch anime on it. Lol. 

The Gunpla and Tamashii Nations booth was the first thing you see upon entering the exhibition hall. Showcased lines include Gundam, S.H.Figuarts, Chogokin, Robot Spirits and Saint Seiya.

Bandai had some AFA exclusives for sale in the Figuarts Zero Zoro (New World) and the Robot Spirits Nu Gundam.

They also had some good deals available. SG$20 Figuarts Luffy certainly caught my attention. I didn't buy it for fear of wanting to get more characters after that. Other items of interest to me were the Robot Spirits Doraemon and the Figuarts Silver Crow.

Good Smile Company was back. They had a bigger booth this time and it was easier to view their displays.

The upcoming figma Attack on Titan Eren Yeager was on display. I would have placed an order for this if I hadn't missed the pre-order for Mikasa. Oh well, that's for not keeping up with various series when they're released.

They had some items for sale, including exclusives like the Nendoroid Nyaruko Maid version and Nendoroid Misaka.

Megahouse had a booth too. You could get Naruto, Gintama and One Piece figures from them.

Kids Logic had mostly Iron Man figures on display.

Their upcoming 12" Super Street Fighter IV Akuma and Optimus Prime looked really good.

You can see more images of the above and other toy booths in the gallery.

There were lots of other things to see and do besides the toys. I'll just be touching on some of them. One of the highlights of the event was the Attack on Titan 1:1 scale Titan head. It may just be a plastic model but you can get a sense of what the characters in the series are up against.

There seemed to be always something on whenever I passed the Horipro booth. May'n, Azusa Tadokoro, Ayaka Ohashi and Valerie made regular appearances and I would stay awhile to watch.

The Manga Festival in Singapore booth was an interesting place to check out. They had various manga which you can browse through and you can also view original works by various creators. 

The Animax booth offered free photo taking. You could choose one of six anime backgrounds. And you could get a free Space Dandy bag with a Coppelion poster when you had your photo taken.

Canon had several photo booths with large backdrops for you to take photos in. What's great was after you took your photo, you can have them print out a copy for you for free. And if you like, you could submit your photo for a contest. 

If you were lucky, you could also catch the guests cosplayers at the booths.

Angie

There was a mini stage in the exhibition hall. I like it being there as it allowed you to catch some of the invited guests without having to fork out the extra $10 to access the main stage area. A downside is that the audience area is quite small and it was a pain to get there when the hall was crowded. 

The Cosplay Singles Competition was held there on Day 2. The winner is pictured below. I think it's a Monster Hunter character. 

The AFA Regional Cosplay Championship was held at the main stage on Day 3. No photography and recording was allowed unfortunately. They did allow us to take the group photo at the end.

Indonesia was the winner, Philippines second and Singapore third.

Lastly, the cosplayers. They were out in force over the weekend. So too the photographers. 

Here's just a couple of them. Click on images to enlarge.  

That's it from me for AFA13. There's lots of other things I didn't touch on but you can see more in the galleries:

General
Toys
Cosplay (General)
Cosplay Singles Competition

I wasn't in a good shape physically going into the event so I couldn't cover as much as I would have liked. Still I enjoyed myself and I look forward to next year's edition.

Thanks for viewing!

Licence2Play 2012

I found myself back at the Sands Expo & Convention Center sooner than I expected. Licence2Play, a gaming event, is being held there from now to 9th December 2012. I dropped in for a look.

My main purpose of going to the event was to check out the Toy Carnival which is set up within. More on that a little further down. First here's some highlights of the gaming content.

 

When you walk through the entrance, you'll immediately see the Wargaming.net booth. They are showcasing their World of Tanks and World of Warplanes games.

 

 

Next up is Blizzard Entertainment booth where you can check out World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, Diablo III, Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty and the upcoming expansion Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm.

There are some Blizzard merchandise and illustrations on display. There are also activities which you can take part in to earn lucky draw coupons.

Asiasoft unveiled a new MMORPG, Ragnarok II: Legend of the Second.

Now for the toys. The Falcon's Hangar had some of the best deals. There are good deals on Marvel Legends 2012, various DCUC, Green Lantern movie 6" figures, Revoltech Disney, Transformers G1 reissue Ultra Magnus, TF Generations GDO etc. They also have various Bandai products on offer.  

 

 

Here's images from some of the other toy booths. 

Play Imaginative

 

Toyz Crazi

 

Rapid Culture

There's still more to see at the event. There's the various gaming tournaments, Cardfight!! Vanguard torunament, CosGames competition, Artiste Alley, various stage performances and so on.

Tickets cost SGD5 if you're thinking of going.

 

 

Event images can be viewed here.

Toy images can be viewed here.


Thanks for viewing!

STGCC 2012 Part 7: Thoughts and Everything Else

 

The Singapore Toy Game and Comic Convention (STGCC) was held on the 1st and 2nd September 2012 at the Sands Expo and Convention Center. With close to 160 local and international exhibitors participating, this year's edition was the largest to date. I went on both days and had a great time, taking photos, meeting people and most importantly, checking out the toys. 

 

The venue was a nice change from the usual Suntec Convention and Exhibtion Center. And getting there was fairly easy as the MRT was just outside the entrance.

I went to Marina Bay Sands for the first time this year. The place is huge! What I like best is the many great spots for phototaking. Regrettably, I rarely left the event hall. I doubt I'll be going back till at least next year's STGCC, if its still held there.

I won't be doing any shopping there though. Looks pricey.

Tickets for the event were available for purchase online since June. And you could also get them from various shops a month before the event. It seemed disadvantages to purchase tickets online as you could only collect them at the event. And from what I observed, the queue for ticket collection moved slower than that for purchasing tickets. I hope the organisers would look into getting the tickets to those who purchased online earlier. It wasn't much of an issue this year, but imagine if a booth had an offer limited to the first 50 people. A person with ticket in hand would have a better chance of getting it.

The queues for admission were in Hall C. The Hot Toys queue was also there. The hall would be used by cosplayers later in the day for phototaking. Its great that there was a place for them so they would not block the corridor in front of the main exhibition hall. The huge space makes me wonder what else could have been at the convention this year.

35 Pop Culture Personalities from East and West graced the event this year. There was a good blend of comic, toy and Japanese personalities. A number of guests were returning from previous editions. If you missed them the first time round it was a great opportunity to catch them again. For me, I was very happy to be able to meet the Hot Toys sculptors. I hope for next year, we'll have double the number of new faces than this year.

There were over 100 exclusives and new products released at the event. Great selection and variety this time round. Keep bringing in Hot Toys please! And if possible, SDCC exclusives. Those seem less and less likely each year but we can always hope.

No prizes for guessing which was my favourite booth. Once again its the Hot Toys booth. I could spend hours there just looking and admiring the figures. The highlights for me were the giant Avengers display and The Bat.

I also liked the booths of Play Imaginative and the Falcon's Hangar for their toy displays.

There weren't many good deals on toys to be found. I guess that's to be expected at a convention. If you got a good deal, do share it by posting in the comments below. It doesn't have to be on toys, it could be other merchandise as well.

The game booths were great and they certainly added more fun and excitement.

I was a little disappointed that there was no Marvel or DC booth.

 

The Artist Alley was bigger and better this year. There were lots of unique art, toys and merchandise.

 

 

Various panels and performances were held on stage. Piko's performance was unexpectedly the highlight of the event for me.

Some issues cropped up during the Hot Toys autograph session. Information with regards to what could be signed was not communicated early enough. That left some fans disappointed. I certainly hope the organisers ensure this does not happen again.

Right, that about covers it. Here's just a few remaining things. If you wanted to show how talented an artist you are or just wanted to leave your mark, you could do so on the graffiti wall. This has been a fixture of STGCC. I wonder what happens to these "walls" after the event.

 

 

You could also design a dweey.



 

 

Some of the guests' doodles and autographs were displayed. I think some of it may have been added by the public.

 

 

Several educational institutions had booths at the event. If you were interested in game design, animation, comics & illustration, interactive media etc, you could check them out.



FRANK by OCBC was the official card of STGCC. They had a booth there where you could meet "Optimus Prime" and "Bumblebee". They were last seen at Cybertron Con 2012.

There was a cafe set up within the exhibition hall. It was very much appreciated considering the food courts are quite far away. For future reference, I think the Indian set meal is the most worth it, that is if you can take spicy food. You got 3 dishes with rice. The next best choice would be the hot dog. It was tasty and crunchy, and the fries were hot and crispy. The drinks were expensive. But thankfully...

... you could get free cups of soft drinks from Fanta. The cups were small so I usually took 2 to 3 cups whenever I passed by. I think I must have drank at least a bottle over the 2 days. There was also a Nescafe booth where you could sample various types of coffee.

Anyone know who brought the pet? Just kidding, no offense to the cosplayer.

Thanks to Reed Exhibitions and partners for organising the event. I had a great time. I look forward to next year's con.

You come back too okay!

Thanks for viewing!

Here are all the segments I've put up. Just click the links.

Part 1 - Hot Toys
Part 2 - Play Imaginative & The Falcon's Hangar
Part 3 - Toys & Merchandise
Part 4 - Games
Part 5 - Artist Alley and Personalities
Part 6 - Cosplay & Performances


Here are images from previous years' editions.
2011
2010
2009
2008