Yes! It's the annual Philippine Toy Convention! And I'm here again to share with you my hauls, the event, the booths, and the awesome stuff that I found during the three day event.
When ToyCon announced the dates of the con everyone got excited including me. Then ToyCon also announced that this year the con will be held in all three Mega Trade Halls, not sure about everyone, but I went crazy! It has been awhile now since the last time I attended a con held inside all three halls, and having more floor space means having more exhibitors, and having more exhibitors means mooooar toys! So yeah that got me really really excited.
When ToyCon announced the dates of the con everyone got excited including me. Then ToyCon also announced that this year the con will be held in all three Mega Trade Halls, not sure about everyone, but I went crazy! It has been awhile now since the last time I attended a con held inside all three halls, and having more floor space means having more exhibitors, and having more exhibitors means mooooar toys! So yeah that got me really really excited.
I originally planned to attend all three days of the event but I only actually got to attend the first and the second day, my brother on the other hand was present on all three days of the con. I skipped the last day because I don't think I'll find anything new.
So how was it? It was effffin awesome! Specially the first day. The second day, being that it was the weekend, was really jam-packed! The hall was so crowded that it felt like the air conditioner was off. But it was still fun. And I got lucky with may hauls in both days, and I'm really really happy with what I got! So let's get to it!
So how was it? It was effffin awesome! Specially the first day. The second day, being that it was the weekend, was really jam-packed! The hall was so crowded that it felt like the air conditioner was off. But it was still fun. And I got lucky with may hauls in both days, and I'm really really happy with what I got! So let's get to it!
My brother and I always make it a point that we attend the first day of the con and we always make sure that we arrive even before the doors of the mall open. It is also a must that we should be one of the few attendees to enter and scout the booths. Why? Because most of the gold and gems get sold during the first few minutes of the con. I arrived at the venue 25 minutes before opening, brother had my tickets that he bought days before the event. Got a notification from bro that he will be arriving late before I left so I decided I'll just buy tickets at the gate.
Doors opened and everyone rushed to the hall, got my ticket, went inside and then I was taken aback by how huge the area was. I didn't know where to go to first during the first few seconds of me entering, because of all the booths and toys that I was seeing. After taking a quick glance of all the booth in front of me, I saw the booth of one of my favorite exhibitors and a regular of all the cons all year round. Went to check his booth but unfortunately he hasn't finished taking out all his stuff yet, so I told him I'll just check out the other booths first and return once he's done. Got my thumbs up and went on around. And then I saw these jumbo sized classic mechs! Didn't bother to ask for the price because I knew these are treasures (a guy was trying to close the deal on one or all of the mechs, not sure, but I over heard them giving out five digit prices!)!
Doors opened and everyone rushed to the hall, got my ticket, went inside and then I was taken aback by how huge the area was. I didn't know where to go to first during the first few seconds of me entering, because of all the booths and toys that I was seeing. After taking a quick glance of all the booth in front of me, I saw the booth of one of my favorite exhibitors and a regular of all the cons all year round. Went to check his booth but unfortunately he hasn't finished taking out all his stuff yet, so I told him I'll just check out the other booths first and return once he's done. Got my thumbs up and went on around. And then I saw these jumbo sized classic mechs! Didn't bother to ask for the price because I knew these are treasures (a guy was trying to close the deal on one or all of the mechs, not sure, but I over heard them giving out five digit prices!)!
Skipped several booths that were selling brand new items and then arrived at the booth of another exhibitor that I regularly visit during con. On his table was an Aoshima 1/24 Back To The Future De Lorean! While I was asking for the kit's price, I saw something on the next booth, what I saw was so awesome I did not wait for the De Lorean's price, placed it back and literally dashed to the next booth and grabbed it!
I was grinning so bad while checking it out, the very kind lady who own's the booth noticed it and teasingly mentioned "Sealed. Made in Japan!". I was like a little kid giggling while nodding my head to what she said. Then I asked for the price. It was priced right, she definitely knew the value of the kit and how much it goes for in Japanese auction sites which was pretty cool. Haggled a bit but didn't really push it because for the price that she was selling it, it was cheap, considering how rare something like this pops up in the Philippines and it's frickin factory sealed! How much did I pay you ask? Not telling, hahaha, but you can check out auction sites, look for the cheapest one if you find any, and it's pretty much priced the same.
I was grinning so bad while checking it out, the very kind lady who own's the booth noticed it and teasingly mentioned "Sealed. Made in Japan!". I was like a little kid giggling while nodding my head to what she said. Then I asked for the price. It was priced right, she definitely knew the value of the kit and how much it goes for in Japanese auction sites which was pretty cool. Haggled a bit but didn't really push it because for the price that she was selling it, it was cheap, considering how rare something like this pops up in the Philippines and it's frickin factory sealed! How much did I pay you ask? Not telling, hahaha, but you can check out auction sites, look for the cheapest one if you find any, and it's pretty much priced the same.
So what exactly is this? Well it's a super deformed car plastic model kit. The kit is made by Gunze Sangyo, and I believe the logo you are seeing on the kit is the old Gunze Sangyo logo which is pretty cool if may say so myself. The exact model of the car I believe is 1977 Toyota Celica 2000 GTV named the "Black Satan" that has been outfitted with bosozoku style body kits or LB kits? Like the Silhouette Celica Turbo LB? Not really sure, I can't read Kanji hahaha. But if you look closely you can see that the model is written that reads "Toyota Celica 2000 GTV + LB [Kanji]". Using the very limited Kanji that I know and with the help of Google Translate we can assume that it says LB Body Kit because "Body/Kit" translated in Kanji using translate is "ボディ/ キット" which looks very similar to what's written on the box.
The robot on top is actually a four cylinder engine made to look like an evil robot. The kit is battery operated, and looking at the pictures from the box I believe the evil robot acts like a key or an on and off switch to make the car run. Anyways, I'll be posting more detailed pictures of the kit and it's contents once I get to building it. |
Doing a quick search on the series showed that there are several more cars on the line up including another Celica that is now officially part of my holy grail. So if you do have one please do hit me up!
Having the Satan Celica and the God Celica side by side would be sooooo sick and epic! Can't wait to have one. LOL!
Having the Satan Celica and the God Celica side by side would be sooooo sick and epic! Can't wait to have one. LOL!
After my first awesome haul, I spent the rest of the day picking up loose cars for cheap in bargain bins and taking pictures of the event. Before I left the con, I was able to snag this Takara Lupin III Choro Q like vehicle driven by Detective Zenigata! Went home really happy, rested and prepared for day two of the con.
Day 2! Saturday, I arrived at the event around lunch time. The diecast group that I'm a member of usually holds meets on Saturdays in the same mall for deals and transactions. I did not rush to the con because most of the hot items are already gone during the first day. Some replenishment are brought on the second day but it's usually the same stuff that the exhibitors have on the first day. Dropped by the group meet to close some deals that I have with fellow members and got these. The yellow Matchbox and white Choro Q Toyota MR2 AW11 I got from a trade with my buddy Hanzel of ScaledRicersDiv.64 FB Page. The blue Chibi Q AW11 on the other hand was bought from a fellow member of the group. The Tomica MR2 at the back is the custom that I made a few weeks back, details of the build can be viewed at the OverHaul page of the blog. After the transactions and the chit chat I went to the con to check it out. The hall was full of attendees!
Left and right you can hear everyone talking about how hot it is inside and how crowded it was. It was so hard to scout for toys that I decided to just go to the conference room for the toy exhibit to take pictures.
There were a lot of cool and amazing toys on display through out the event floor. And there's this one toy line that never fails to capture me, it's 3A's 1/6th and 1/12th limited figures. If I had enough money to spend I would probably be collecting this awesome awesome line of figures as well. My brother got into 1/6th scale figures several years ago, but even before that, I was already a big fan of Ashley Wood's art. I really like his art style so it was already given that I'll fall in love with his figures when he started releasing them. There's always a neat display of 3A figures whenever I go to a con and I always take pictures of them because they are so cool and fun to take pictures of.
This year though, something was displayed that made me want to save up and invest on these figures. I knew about Bryan Lie's "God Complex World" from his old blogspot site. Blog entries were made to describe the world and the characters in it, I really liked the character design and the illustrations posted, however after some time of not seeing any updates from the blog I totally forgot about. I also dropped my old blog site where Lie's blog was linked so I never knew that an announcement was made last December of 2013 about the blog moving. So you can just imagine my surprise and glee when I saw for the first time the 1/6th figure representation of Hermes, Zeus and Tsukuyomi in fully articulated bodies, donned with real cloth costumes they wore in the illustrations and super cool accessories oozing with epicness. I really really wanted to take Tsukuyomi home. LOL
After drooling over the God Complex figures and taking lots of pictures of Tsukuyomi, I decided to check out the rest of the displays and for the last time check out the booths for loots. On my way out I saw the cast of Doraemon posing for pictures with their fans! Wanted to ask for a neat gadget from Doraemon's pocket but he was heavily guarded. At around this time the crowd was thicker than when I went in earlier, so I decided to just do a quick round of hunting and go home since I knew traffic will be horrible on my way home. I wasn't really expecting much at this point and was just basically looking out for some cheap loots. Which I did find after a few booths. I got this loose Takara 1/60 Diecast Berserga from the Armored Trooper Votoms series for less than $2, it's missing a gun, a shield, fin on the head, shoulder armor, and the pilot but for it's price I just couldn't let it go.
After a few more booths I then found another cheap haul, an England made Matchbox Lesney Mecedes Benz diecast car. Played condition with the usual paint chips and scratches, nothing a repaint or touch up can resolve.
Almost done with my rounds and I was ready to go home, I was already sweating and my feet was already a bit sore. I decided to drop by one of the con regulars who sells bins and bins of loose parts for figures and other stuff, was hoping I can find anything that I can use for the Berserga. Most of his stuff are for vintage figures like Joe's, Transformers, Masters of The Universe, M.A.S.K., and the likes. He also sells cards, inlays, manuals of the said series. That is why my eyes pop'd wide open when I saw the oh so familiar blue and red star of Tamiya from his cards and manuals bin. Pulled it out and there lay in front of me a 1990 full color Tamiya Catalogue in English.
I know I have mentioned it countless times before, but I'm really just a big sucker for vintage box arts, catalogs and inlays, because I grew up looking at and admiring them from comics, magazines and hobby shops before. So yes, this catch I guess would be the highlight of my 2015 Philippine ToyCon coverage. The catalog is full of colored pictures of car models that I really like, some of my RC holy grail are featured inside too. I'm really stoked I got this and I really hope I get several more copies of different years. I guess all I need to do now is wait for the next con and hope I get lucky again! Well that's it for now, thanks for dropping by and don't forget to keep on over haulin!