[六月二十日 to 六月二十一日] 14th TOYCON Weekend

The Curator faces the Titan!

FOREWORD: I would like to congratulate Den Isidro (the coser who played Kamen Rider Drive) and his group for winning the group cosplay competition.

It has been a one hell of a ride for me, as I managed to attend ToyCon this year (aka the 14th running), and that is held at all SM Megatrade Halls. And here is my summary of this incredible event (just like last year).

Before I get into the event, I buy two tickets last week (June 17th aka the Kawaii PH Book Launch event) in order to ensure my financial balance after I took shots from the event, and yes it took me PHP300 to buy two of them. Then head home and resume my research work as usual.

Saturday, June 20th: Before I went to the event, my body has to go under recovery mode, because I didn't get enough sleep for a few hours after I took overtime (DAMMIT TIME RESTRICTION DEVICE!!). Then later on after my personal commute (Bus headed to Galleria + walk to Mega), I went to the event as usual, and there are so many sponsors are here, that includes iflix (the country's gigantic library of entertainment content plus you can watch TV shows (e.g. The Big Bang Theory, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Game of Thrones) and movies. Perfect for a worthy binge-watcher!), Max Collector, DC Comics and many more. Then in the meantime, I go into shopping mode to buy button pins (I bought three Yamanbagiri Kunihiro and one Beerkada pin). Later on, there is a DJ here tossing out Pop! figures to everyone, like it was in party central. I partially saw two exclusive Pop! figures in the event: the Aswang and the convention exclusive, the Team Pacquiao boxer/coach & player. Later on, at the end, I stop by at the booth in promotion of the Attack on Titan (in theaters August 12th!) movie, and yes thanks to the person who took a shot at me when I look at the Colossal Titan. There are many cosplayers attended in this day, but luckily I took shots of them. Gate attendance is partially a few, due to the event rules and regulations (which means no changing at the restroom).

Sunday, June 21st: I just went there as usual in the final day (Sadly, Jossa did not come due to reasons, so her brother, John came over to greet me). Later on, shopping mode. I bought another Beerkada pin and two Touken Ranbu pins (Shokudaikiri Mitsutada and Heshikiri Hasebe). This time, I get into the place called the 'Gallery Area'. Here, you can see some of the collections have displayed, from the LEGOs to the mighty awesome Coca-Cola collection. There are many figures have displayed in the area including Thundercats Toys PH, PlayArts PH, Robot Pilipinas, PuriFigyua PH (YES PreCure figures!), Team Onii-chan, JoJo's Bizzare Adventure PH, Transformers Pinoy Collectors, Pinoy Toy Kolektor's Marvel Division, PNN (or Pinoy Na Nagmamanyika), Super Mario Collectors Philippines, Street Fighter Collectors PH, AFT HQ (Anime Figures and Toys Headquarters), Otakai Figure Society, Pinoy Square Enix Collectors (celebrating their 5th year), Chopsuey Toy Collectors Elite, Transformers.ph, and so much more. But my favorite part of the Gallery Area is none other than Zoids Philippines (I saw the Bloody Death Saurer and two SeismoSaurus!). I met with two guys named Art and Jeck, and I shared my personal Zoid collection at home (I stopped collecting them because it's out of production). Then in the meantime after I took shots of the attending cosplayers, the battery of my DSLR has gone low, so I got no choice but to take pics on my smartphone as my last resort.

The Verdict: Best. Con. Ever. I was so happy to see my friends from the cosplay community again, plus I had a good time to cover this event. Anyways, the event's committee announced to the con-goers and cosplayers that next year's ToyCon (aka the 15th running) is going to be held at the SMX Convention Center. Oh boy, this is going to get really big. I hope next year's ToyCon is gonna be really awesome, for the kids and for the young-at-heart.

For more of the pics (plus shots from my smartphone), go here.

BONUS: [Left] Me in the Attack on Titan movie booth.
[Right] Me (holding a lightsaber) with everyone at the Philippine Outpost (aka Pinoy 501st).