On 24th April 2004, Saturday, something pretty huge happened in Singapore's toy collection scene (enough to steal some headlines from the collapse of Nicholl highways). Singapore's very first toys convention organised by Emperor Toyz and presented by the hugely popular collectibles forum, sgcollect. Held at Orchard Parade Hotel's Antica Function Rooms I & II, this moderate event hoped to pull toys collectors and retailers together under one roof for a good time interacting with one another while collectors hope to grab some great deals. Sgcollect committee and the organisers also managed to put up a registration package for supporters of the program to grab since admission is free. This package include a personalise sgcollect member cum discount card, a Dotcon T-shirt, a Dotcon handphone strap and a limited edition Stikfas figure (limited to 2500 pieces worldwide). The event starting from 10 a.m for members who pre-registered online and 11 a.m to general public, carried on till 5p.m in the evening. There are 3 auctions for rare vinage toys (Transformers Goodbye Convoy playset; Macross SDF-1; Chogokin) in the event itself for people to hold their bid. Beside that, between everyone who bought the package is entitled to a series of lucky draws with prizes sponsored by the dealers participated.

        I went to the convention with my girlfriend, mainly to meet up with some fellow collectors and my friends from La Tendo who too had participated in the convention with their truckload of shokugans and gashapons. I went with the mentality not to spend due to budget constraint but boy was I wrong. We reached the venue at around 11.30 a.m and as I approached the Antica function rooms in Orchard Parade Hotel, there were some collectors already outside comparing their grabs of the day. There are 2 counters with staffs distributing the goodie pack as well as the event package. I didn't get a package as Stikfas is not my kind of toy and upon looking at the final product, I'm pretty sure my decision is justified. I didn't expect the first attempt of our very own toys' convention to be a huge one but the space available on that day is pretty disappointing as the total space is slighly bigger than a quarter of a conventional school hall. But the lack of space was made up by the presence of a family ambience. As I beginning to see familiar faces all around. We then made our way through the crowd to where the La Tendo stall is. Reedy and Matthew were there as the main staff while Reedy's brother and his wife came to dispatch the goods before leaving for the store. The selection they brought was pretty impressive (you can see from the photos on the left). They had also slashed the prices of most items, making them very attractive to hardcore collectors like myself. On top of a discounted purchase, every purchase entitled the customers to a discount coupon to the Bandai's "HG Dragonball Imagination Best Selection" gashapons set due to arrive in a couple of weeks time. It was fortunate that I wasn't tempted with the goods La Tendo had to offer.

        Next I take a brisk look at the other outlets that participated. There was Falcon Hangar and Rapid Culture, 2 big toys retailers located at Far East Plaza with their selection of Transformers, action figures, Stikfas etc. Then we met up with the staff from Simply Toys and Ng's Collections (Dollz Inc.) Simply Toys were selling some old Yujin gashapons for a pretty good price while Uncle Ng in a nice looking army camo shirt brought some nice Astroboy toys with some Takara bendable dolls. He also had some gashapons to offer like D.G.P's "Snow", Yamato's "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex" and Epoch's "Yokoyama's Romance of the 3 Kingdoms". Then I met up with a fellow collector, James who is now bringing toys for sale under the Goobertoys branch. Goobertoys themselves brought some prototypes of the figurines they are poised to produce in the coming months which really interest me and other collectors as well (see picture on the right). James displayed some lastest shokugans, gashapons & trading figures series such as One Coin's "Overman", Medicos Entertainment's "Kin Nikuman" and Epoch's "Pa Pa Pa Pa-man' which I bought. While I was engaged in a conversation in the Goobertoys booth, my girlfriend was attracted to some interesting but old Swatch watches at the booth adjacent. Kowing how much she wanted to get one of the watches and guilty about how long have I not buy any gift for her since we planned our Japan trip last year, I granted her one watch which she had to choose from 2 choices. I was actually quite sceptical about the fact that someone is actually selling non-toy related items like Swatch watches here. Guess what? The watch's like 10 years old by now, snapped it's straps when my girlfriend wore it the following day! Feel like a sucker all over again.

        Anyway, after we confirmed wanted to buy our stuffs. We made a last round around the convention area before we decied to go. Across the hall was where all the lucky draw prizes are located (see left); which I wasn't too interested in, mainly Transformers and some other stuffs. The 3 vintage items put up for auctions were also around the area but the bidding was lukewarm when I was there. On the right there was this wide screen plasma TV as some garage kit and hobby shop (name unknown, see right) pulled almost all TF fans with a Playstation 2 Transoformer live-action game. On their right, was a guy selling his vintage G.I.Joes action figures and playsets. And on his left, is Anime Hobby from Excelsior Hotel which had some cool anime merchandise. Opposite them was this mother-daughter pair selling a lot of Gundam trading figures and Kubricks. Behind them was a guy selling comic tradepaper backs. To round off the dealers was the booth beside La Tendo selling movie related toys (see left) and on their left some novelty items like Lord of the Ring rings and pendants were sold.

        We finally decided to go at around 1 plus, after bidding my La Tendo friends farewell. My overall feeling for our country's virgin attempt on a small-scale toys convention was that as long as collectors and dealers were happy about it, it should be deemed a successful. Of course the whole thing got off the ground only start of April whe they informed members in the forum, a lot of dealers were roped in at the very last minute. The advertisement I noticed was an article in te Friday's Life section of Straits Times, thus there might not be too much publicity to pull general public. A lot of people claimed that it was like Clarke Quay but cramped together, my view was that this was a much refreshing experience than your scheduled weekly hunt in Clarke Quay for sure. Some claimed that the committee should rope in toys companies like Hasbro and Bandai for future conventions, well with the minute serious toys collection market here, it's easier said than done man. Perhaps if our northern neighbours like Malaysia and Thailand could cooperate with us, a grander convention could be envisioned. All in all, as compared to the large scale conventions like Wonderfest or World Character convention in Japan, Comic Con in the U.S or other large scale hobby conventions in Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Europe etc, this is actually not a bad start. I definitely will be looking forward to Dotcon 2005 especially if more gashapons selling retailers are there!

© Copyright KK Heng 2004