Rainbowsphere

Okay, so I dressed up into some casual otaku wear, strapped in some cash, and came all the way from my home for the very first time. For what? Well, to join in for some fun, as well as to cover on the 7th Toycon held at the Megatrade Hall at SM Megamall, Philippines. You’ll have to pardon my crappy cellphone camera though.

It was jam-packed on the opening times of the con, especially on the first day, when local celebrity Iza Calzado obliged for the opening ceremony on the first day.

Of course, the showing of Batman: The Dark Knight on the cinemas marked the con’s theme (the showing for Philippines cinema was June 16), which didn’t fail to put up a booth of its own. But the feel this I got from the con itself was pretty much like… well, meh. It was too spacious compared to cons I’ve been on other countries (crammed, 4-by-4 stalls that don’t even justify all the good contents displayed due to lack of space, with pretty much like the force of morning marketplace people going food rush for the first fresh stuff, which also applies to con wars anyway). Nevertheless, some goods were pretty much remarkable as to have people flock into them.

Ah, the lure of MMOG’s: They wouldn’t just stop selling their stuff to innocent people so they can lure them to playing their games.

Sure, there were MMOG booths, with Level Up! (just like the moneywhoresentrepreneurs they were. Filipinos, feel free to enter their site if you want to flush money into the toiletplay their games) setting up a booth of their own, which I totally ignored (FEEL THAT, FEEL THE POWER OF THE IMPOVERISHED, HAHAHAHAHA). E-Games tried to impress people with their newest “free game“, Cabal Online (with their non-free “kash” goods, which is normal on “free games“), which garnered a few people to register for free and get some goodies in return. They also had this new kiddie soccer game named GONG!, which they, of course, had people play on beta. Then there’s the Lineage II booth, giving away CD’s and merchandise for their newest patch, Kamael. But yeah, it’s pay stuff, so /ignore.

Next on my list are the figumates. Of course, Wasabi Toys was there, but their stuff kinda put me in a so-so stature when it comes to live transactions. Their choice of stuff to sell was definitely NOT good enough for the hardcore otaku. All they had was plushies, 1/110 mecha figus, hats, and some more stuffed stuff. Not even a legit figu in sight. CSCENTRAL and 2RATS (no, 2RATS doesn’t have a company website, and they’re teaming up with Comic Alley, but is still fail stuff, nuff said) occupied the west and southwest wall with their long booth filled with japanese and western toys. Of course, their selection of PIRATED ANIME AND OTHER STUFF (ARRR YEAH, PIRATED! THEY SELL FANSUBS AND SENTAI VIDS THAT HAVE FAIL SUBTITLES AND LEGIT WWE VIDEOS AND THEY DON’T EVEN FUCK A SHIT ON COPYRIGHTS, ISN’T THAT JOLLYWELL FUCKING GREAT?! SO FUCK THE HAMSTER/RAT/CHIPMUNK/RODER/WAHTEVERTHATIS!). But anyways, all the toys were either bootleg or legit, but who cares. I didn’t buy one from them anyway.

“ARR! I MIGHT AZZ WELL HIJECK YE BOATZ AND RUNAWAY WITH YE LOOTZ, MATE! WE AZZEPT MEYJIR CREEDIT CARZ TOO!”

Worse, Mango Manga (and now Anime, THEY’RE FUCKING IMPROVING NOW, YEAH), and their shits had a booth of their own, selling scanlated manga at 5 pesos per title (FUCK YES! THEY’RE FUCKING SELLING FAN-MADE, FREEWARE STUFF!), and the usual anime CD’s and DVD’s at around 60 to 80 pesos per CD and 100- 150 pesos per DVD. Piracy: 2, Copyrights: 0, General Satisfaction of the Audiences: 200, Me: Oh fuck, not again…

Seriously, don’t buy shit from these guys. You can just go online and find them yourself, FOR FREE, ON FULL. Ask your nearest veteran otaku about the details.

Then, there was this little, unnamed shop that has some rare goods out (maybe somewhere from San Juan, I dunno, all I know is that it had a Jigen Daisuke and Fujiko Mine from Lupin the III, a nice Fauna (of Megachu!) figumate, a Vader Mask with Life Support, original JPop CD’s, Japanese NEWTYPE and Shounen Jump! mags, artbooks, some Anime CD’s and DVD’s, and keychains). That’s one of the good stalls I’ve been, and I like that. They don’t boast a name, yet they sell some pretty good stuff, without bootlegs. Thumbs up for you.

Yup, that’s from them, with a price tag of five thousand pesos on the right cheek.

The rest are shit stuff, or western stuff and more otaku stuff, to rather categorize the non-shit stuff. I didn’t take pictures of them anymore since their displays aren’t that much (save the MGS4 figures of Snake that the staffers grabbed before the con even opened, the rich fuckers they were). And the target audience not only points to the collectors, but to the kids who want toys as well. That being said, the wares range from the no-touch stuff to the kiddie stuff.

And of course, I never expected to find gashapon machines of figumates being sold at sky-high prices.

Of course, there’s this display of ausum western stuff that you can’t find anywhere (or buy, unless you’re a rich bastard like Randall-kun), like the mentioned before Iron Man life-size head-to-shoulder armor figure, and the War Machine figure beside it (which people put on purpose since that hint on the movie). There were also Saraman, Gandalf, and Aragorn (AHAHAHAAAAAY! ARAGOOOOHRN~!!!). There was also the Pre-Alien combine and some Stormtroopers. but yeah, enough of the western stuff.

I’m in your cave, with your bunch of scraps.

Then there was this big Lego galle… wait, wrong… CITY, full of Lego ausum stuffs, like, 50 storey buildings, racecars, airplanes, gas stations, blablabla. I’m not into Lego anyway, screw you.

Madness…? THIS IS LEGOLAAAAAAAAA! Too bad there’s no Pit of Death. I’d love throwing Legopeople in there.

Last on the list of toys to sightsee was the human or life-sized figures of western stuff. Godzilla was the only one there that was legit otaku, with the moving mouth, eyes, and all. But yeah, they’re for display only, owners don’t want to sell them unless you’re a rich bastard, like Randall-kun.

MANLYZILLA.

Of course, being movie-themed, there were booths dedicated to the movie, as well as the toys for the movie. There were booths for Incredible Hulk for Marvel, and of course Batman for DC. Ironically, their booths were face-to-face with each other. Talk about blatant competition.

Right, I don’t want to discuss this movie shit. Christian Bale fails being Batman, so sue me.

From the toys, to the paperback. not much on this corner, save that Alfredo Alcala booth, who starred in many comics in the past, notably Batman, some local superheroes, and even Penthouse (it’s an American pr0n mag, ask an Amerikkan for moar info) comics. I can say the art was finely done, and the people behind the booth even went through the effort of selling copies of his legit stuff. Then there was the DaMEAT booth, a booth for DeviantArt people who want to showcase their stuffs, and gain profit from it.

They say he’s one of the greatest artists of this country’s ancient times. Nice art, too.

But this one bags the stuff talk: WACOM INTUOS 3. Did I say WACOM INTUOS 3? Yup. They had units for free trial, and the noobish me failed at drawing anything on a digital pen and paper. And they’re using Corel Drawer 4! I don’t use that! If they had SAI I might’ve been motivated or something, but no!

Sorry guys. I was just so fucking hypnotized to buy one…

STOP! Time to grab something for eats. Instead of the usual snacks in store (which were pricetagged as gold anyways, so no, no junk food), I went down the foodcourt and bought myself some pork teriyaki. To my surprise, the gold up there reached down here, and I was forced to vomit some more money into paying into something I would get so cheap in a beef bowl shop.

It didn’t even fill the plate…

Back to the con. There were events prepared for the con, but they were so poorly prepared, the stage was empty 95% of the time. It was just like, con prize giveaways, pause, indy film presentation, pause again, then game demos (MGS4, and the new DBZ game), pause, failbands, pause, then people on the stage again with some crappy Jedi shit, pause, more crappy indy films, pause, then COSPLAY!!!

Yes. Cosplay. The cosplay event was the only event forgiving enough for the whole con. As if the cosplay event was the only event that mattered. Anyways, there were some notable ones, and some crappy ones, I didn’t take that much of them since I’m not much of a paparazzi like Aya Shameimaru was, but I took some pics of prominent people of the local cosplay front.

Hard Gay, and famous Alodia as I-No

I TOLD YOU HARD GAY IS GOING TO BE THERE! STARK CAN GO FUCK A ROCK! HAHAHAHA!

Yeah, anyways, Alodia was there to host the cosplay event and not join in. Maybe she was late for the registration or was a special cosplay, I dunno. I don’t like Alodia that much. I liked the japanese cosplayer who did Chi(?) better. And her having some bodyguards doesn’t, DOESN’T justify her position.

So the con’s contents are there, laid out, done deal. Not really that much OOMPH I expected, so I went home after half the event today. No Touhou people too, even though I was expecting a booth. Fail. Of course, I didn’t go home empty-handed as I bought in some stuff of my own liking like doujin, mags, posters, and CD’s, all legit of course.

To the otaku, the spoils.

And that ends this winsuck con. I probably won’t come out again for a few more months. I’m going to suffer some hikkikomori withdrawal for now.