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| My Custom Christopher Reeve Superman on the Toycon Poster |
Toycon (Toy Convention) fever is once again in the air. And this year's edition is personally the best there is yet. But I'll elaborate on that later. This is my third Toycon experience and so far the event just gets better every year. I had the luxury of getting a free pass for this event because my Custom Christopher Reeve Superman was one of those chosen to be used in the Toycon 2012 poster. As usual, I was only able to join the Toycon on Sunday because I have work on Weekdays and Saturdays. Toycon is the 2nd toy event of the year here in the Philippines and I dare say the most festive among the rest. The organizers always bring the big guns to these events. The three day event features Cosplay Contests, Toys and other Collectibles Seller Booths, Toy Exhibits, Statues, Toy Biddings, Contests, and Musical show events on stage. In this year's Toycon, DC Comics brought Christian Bale's actual Dark Knight Rises Batman costume used in the filming of the latest Batman movie franchise. This served as the main highlight of the event as Toycon goers flocked the movie costume.
Dark Knight Rises Exhibit
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| Dark Knight Rises Exhibit |
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| Exhibit of Certificate of Authenticity |
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| Dark Knight Rises Bat Suit |
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| Hot Toys Movie Batmen |
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| Hot Toys Batman Movie Villains |
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| Toy Merchandise of two of Batman's most popular animated versions |
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| Cosplayer donning the Batman and Catwoman suit |
This year's Toy exhibits featured as usual an uncanny mix of different collections. I took photos of my favorite exhibits. (Sorry for the crappy pics, I was in a hurry while shooting this.) I think DC is missing in Action. And I didn't notice any Mcfarlane NBA's or Spawn. But I might have unintentionally skipped them.
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| List of Exhibitor from the Different Toy Groups in the Philippines |
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| G.I. Joe Diorama |
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| Various Hot Toys |
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| Hot Toys Diorama |
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| Hot Toys Superman Returns |
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| Hot Toys Batman The Dark Knight |
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| Hot Toys Wolverine and Blade |
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| Hot Toys Michael Keaton Batman |
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| Hot Toys Jack Nicholson Joker, Bruce Lee, C3PO and R2D2 |
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| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles |
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| Movie Transformers |
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| Hot Toys Spiderman and Green Goblin |
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| Various Spiderman toys |
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| Marvel Universe |
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| Infinity Gaunlet Movie Version |
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| Infinity Gaunlet Comic Version |
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| Marvel Legends Avengers v.s. X-Men |
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| Coke Collectibles |
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| Star Wars |
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| Hot Toys Avengers Diorama |
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| Custom Weapon X Wolverine |
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| Sentai and Riders |
Statues
There are a lot of talented Filipino sculptors, and Toycon events usually serves as their venues in showcasing their works of art. I took photos of the best Statues I've seen in the event.
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| Life Size Voltes V |
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| Mazinger Z and The Godfather? |
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| Filipino Comic Book Hero Ang Panday with various Marvel Characters |
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| Life Size Marvel Statues |
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| Life Size Sentinel |
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| Statue featuring the art of Jim Lee from the Superman comics |
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Chris Reeve Superman Statue with Hot Toys Chris Reeve Superman
The Art of Alfredo Alcala
The convention also showcases illustrations by Filipino artists. This year, they highlighted a Filipino Legendary Illustrator. Near this exhibit, up and coming Filipino comicbook artists and writers display their stuffs as well as do on the spot drawings to the delight of the con goers.
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Comics
Toycon is never complete when there are no comic books for sale. This year, there were a lot of stalls selling back issues and collected editions at a very low price. I didn't indulge myself in comic books this time, picking just a few instead just to whet my appetite. Earlier this year in the Tagcom event, my money was spent mostly on comics, but Toycon usually have more hard to find and rare toys. I reserved my cash for the toy hunt
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| Comics by Comic Odyssey |
And of course, my favorite booths. I just snapped quick photos of the Toy booths that I came across with. When I reached the venue, there wasn't a groundswell of people yet. I took that opportunity to look around and start my toy hunt. But when afternoon came and with my Toy Hunt over, the venue began to fill up. I was hoping I could snap photos on the booths where I purchased my stuffs. But the swelling number of people made it hard for me to do. Below are the photos of some of the toy booths.
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| Great toys online |
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| BigBoy Toy Store |
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| Japanimation |
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| Raddj Toys |
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| Wasabi Toys |
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| JAE Collectibles (my favorite shop) |
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| Uncle Sam's |
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| Toys Kolektibols |
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| Hasbro Board Games and Blythe Dolls |
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| Aki Toys |
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| Toy Toy Laruan |
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| Toy Empire |
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| 2RATS |
My Toycon Hauls
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| The Freebies |
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| Batman Comics Freebie |
And of course, my Toycon Hauls. I'm calling this my best Toycon ever simply because I managed to get almost all of my existing Toy wish list. As a contributor in the Toycon Poster, I was able to get freebies from the organizers. The freebies consists of a Toycon 2012 Poster Tarp, a Reusable environment friendly Bag, Toycon 2012 Baller, a Dark Knight Rises mini flashlight Keychain, and a Batman Comics. The poster tarp though did not feature my custom Chris Reeve Superman because the tarp already went into printing when the organizers solicited photos of custom action figures. But Event Organizer Mr. Cholo Mallillin was kind enough to get me one of the posters hanging in the Mall. It's a good keepsake to remind me of my little involvement in the 2012 edition of Toycon. I also got my freebies courtesy of Cholo as he was one of those who chose to use my custom Chris Reeve Superman for the Toycon Poster. I can never thank him enough for being such an accommodating person.
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| Vintage PBA Action Figures with Glen Rice |
This Toycon was a huge surprise for me. Prior to the days leading to Toycon, I was confident that I wouldn't spend much in the Toy Booths because I was looking for figures that are now rare nowadays. I set that as my priority in order for me to cut down on my Toy expenses. But lo and behold A Vintage Milo sponsored PBA (Filipino Basketball League version of the NBA) action figures (with pencil sharpener base) caught my eye when I visited a booth that was selling comics. I used to own a Benjie Paras figure but lost it when it was stolen from me. I also own an Alvin Patrimonio figure but the figure was broken and lost it's arm during one of my playtime when I was younger. So seeing both of them made me ecstatic as I rummaged through a container filled with vintage Action Figures. I actually couldn't contain my excitement when I saw these, I let out a huge smile on my face because now I've completed them again. I've been searching for these two for quite some time. And I'm sure I've seen them during last year's Toycon, I thought somebody already bought them. But to my surprise, they are still available. I quickly snagged them and rummaged more in the same stall because all of a sudden, I had this indescribable feeling that more treasures are in store for me in the container.
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| My DC Hauls |
True enough, I saw a Hasbro JLA Superman (the short haired reissue of the Mullet Haired Kenner Total Justice Superman). I considered my Total Justice Superman as the best Superman figure that I owned before DC Direct and Mattel began producing the highly articulated action figures in the early 2000's. I've been looking for the Hasbro version for ages and the last time I saw one was when I was in Australia. I regrettably didn't buy that figure and was regretting that decision. But seeing him at Toycon made me very happy that I quickly decided to look for more Hasbro JLA figures. The rummaging yielded me Atom, Red Tornado and Zauriel. I also saw Impulse and Superboy but regrettably I didn't get them. I've now almost completed the Kenner Total Justice Line and the Hasbro JLA line. I'm just lacking Black Lighting, Dr. Polaris, Impulse, Superboy, Wonder Woman, Steel, Joker, and Lex Luthor. I've seen all of them at one point in my previous years of toy hunting. Now I'm regretting the fact that I didn't get them before because I though completing this toyline was hopeless. But if this experience is telling me something, I'm sure these figures will pop up soon. I was also ecstatic to find a Toyfair exclusive Eradicator from the Kenner Man of Steel Toyline. I never thought that I would be able to find one because this figure is quite rare and could only be acquired through mail in order from Toyfare Magazine in the U.S. Rounding up my DC hauls are the Batman Begins Ra's Al Ghul, Ducard, DCSH Brainiac, DCUC The Question, an Arkham Asylum boxset Joker with an Aquaman head which I will be using for custom, and a JLU Superman with the Bottled City of Kandor.
Being a Big DC fan, my DC hauls were the crowning jewel of my 2012 Toycon experience. But my Marvel hauls are no slouch either. Because I managed to snag a couple of my most wanted Marvel figures in my wishlist. I've been looking for a Gambit figure that would blend well with my X-Men movie figures for quite some time and every time I see one, I always get outbid. This Toycon, I finally managed to snag one at a very low price. I also purchased a Peter Parker Spiderman for my collection, Vintage White Queen, Spiderman Movie Lizard (from the Toby Maguire Spiderman toyline), Vintage Nova, and a X-Men Movie Rogue in her X-Men Movie uniform. I've also been looking for this Rogue figure for quite some time. I also finally bought the Lizard figure that I missed out last year. I got all of these DC and Marvel figures at an incredibly low price.
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| Total Justice comic book based on the Kenner toyline |
And as my day at the Toycon came to a close, I decided to buy some comic books. Back issue Comic Books lately have been a staple in my Toy Hunts. I limited my Comic book purchase to two collected sets of Justice League stories. The first one is the comic book adaptation of the Kenner Total Justice toyline. I chose to buy this title despite the negative reviews because I'm a huge fan of the toyline. And during this Toycon, I was on a Total Justice merchandise hunting mode because of the Total Justice related figures that I acquired at this event. The other title I bought is the rare Justice Leagues storyline that featured the disbanding of the Justice League of America and in it's place, New JLAs were formed. Wonder Woman's Justice League of Amazons, Aquaman's Justice League of Atlantis, Batman's Justice League of Arkham, and Superman and Martian Manhunter's Justice League of Aliens. I kinda took interest of this storyline because I thought the writers had a brilliant concept by using a wordplay on the JLA initials.
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| JL?, JL Amazons, and JL Atlantis |
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| JL Arkham, JL Aliens, and the return of JL America |
All in all Toycon 2012 was huge for me. But just like in the previous Toycons, I missed out on items that I should have bought. I had the mindset of acquiring a Mattel Ghostbusters Box Set but never gave in to my urge to buy one despite seeing the actual product at one of the stalls in Toycon. I also did not buy the Kenner Super Powers Superman that I found because I still kinda despise the price tag. But I think I'll let patience reign in for me. Just like my Toy Hauls at this Toycon, maybe the items that I missed this year would be available next year. I'm definitely looking forward for next year's Toycon. And my hunch is that there's going to be a HUGE SUPERMAN event because the new Superman movie will be release next year, during the month of Toycon. Hope I could contribute again.
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