Monday, September 9, 2013

STGCC13: Singapore Toy, Game & Comic Convention


Well, it took a little while, but we finally got here! Being away from your home computer does seriously cramp your blogging ability. But not to worry! I am home from the wilds of Singapore and ready to deliver to you Part 1 of my STGCC coverage. Wait, Part 1? There's going to be MORE?

Consider this your con overview, while in later posts I will delve deeper into some of the companies who were showcasing their goods over the weekend. You've probably already seen some of the Iron Man stuff, right? No way I was fitting all that in one post!

Join me below the cut for my Asian con adventure.

STGCC13 was without a doubt gripped with Iron MANia. I simply cannot stress how much Iron Man stuff was around. It was pretty much what I would expect a real life Stark Expo to be like; tiny tributes to Tony Stark everywhere you look.

You could look at Iron Mans:


You could take photos of Iron Mans:


You could take photos WITH Iron Mans:


You could buy exclusive Iron Mans:


Or metal Iron Mans:


Or vinyl Iron Mans:


You could click Iron Mans:


Or you could have your picture drawn as an Iron Mans:


Seriously, there was so much Iron Man stuff. I'll be covering the great work of Hot Toys and Play Imaginative in a future post, otherwise this one is going to get real one-sided real quickly.

If you listen to the FPcast podcast (which you totally should do), you will have heard me talking about a few of the things I'd been looking to buy while at the con. I'm happy to report I managed to get them all! No out-of-the-box photos of anything yet, as I don't have my good camera at the moment and I refuse to keep using the compact I covered the con with (it's so hard to go backwards in camera quality #photographerwoes). I nabbed the Tokidoki Comicorno which is just as painfully cute as I hoped it would be, and I also managed to meet Luke Chueh and get him to sign one of his custom bear heads. The big ticket item though was the event exclusive Play Imaginative Super Alloy Batman. THIS GUY.


He is a metal monstrosity and I love him. The convention was incredibly organised as far as picking up the limited edition items went. You would pay for the item at the company's stall, then take your receipt over to the appropriate booth faaaaaar away from all the stalls to pick it up. Kept the lines away from people who were trying to browse. Fantastic idea.


Artists Alley is always a highlight for me at the Aussie cons, and the Alley at STGCC did not disappoint. It was thriving and really busy on the Saturday, but strangely on the Sunday half of the stall holders weren't there, or their stalls were bare. I was a bit disappointed, as Saturday was a bit of a smash-n-grab day to ensure I got in and got the items I wanted and Sunday was going to be a more relaxed wander through the wares. I don't know if some people sold out of stuff and just decided not to come back? Very strange.

I did buy a few things, including a few prints from Keatopia, who does stuff like this:


And a couple of sketchbooks from Keh Choon Wee who does stuff like this:

Aaaaaand this:


How rad. I didn't buy anywhere near as much art as I would have liked to, as I was really paranoid about getting it home. I very nearly pulled the trigger on that Hobbit piece, but decided not to risk it.


Artists Alley also had quite a few toy and statue designers alongside the 'traditional' artists. There was a finished 'Cannibal' on display, but there was always a crowd around him whenever I walked past, so it was a tricky photo to get. The sculpt wasn't Hot Toys quality, but it's a great thing for consumers to see all these indie companies striving for the great heights that we've been shown are possible to achieve.

There was a huge variety of collectibles on display from Hot Toys, Enterbay, Play Imaginative, and a whole lot of others who I hadn't really heard of before, but will be looking into now:





A lot more of that sort of stuff coming soon.

But ok folks, I can hear you. You want to see some Iron Man, right? I've said you can have Iron Man later, but you want him NOW, right? Well...okay then. I'll sign off with a little vid I threw together in iMovie of a few of the Iron Man/Avengers sights from the weekend. Don't be too harsh, it was shot on my compact camera and I've never used iMovie before, so save your film-making criticisms for Michael Bay.


So that's all for now. If anyone has any questions, be sure to leave them in the comments and I'll be sure to address them later.

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