August 23, 2009. The Otaku Taiiki Convention held at Megatrade hall 3, SM Megamall. Seriously, there is no way this place can get nearer, is there? Oh well, on with the post.

We headed there at around 9am and arrived around 10 or 1030 (I think). Looked like our plan to get there early and beat the people rush worked, there were barely any people at that time, yet the hosts were already starting with some games. First up was “Name that song”, wherein they play a song (j-music, of course) and the audience has to name the title f the song, the artist, and the anime it’s from. Some of the songs were just plain ridiculous, like the Dragonball opening theme sang by Gino Padilla (who the hell is that?!). I actually won a prize off of that game, but it wasn’t a happy thing because of two reasons. One, because it was a K-On! song (Brush and Ballpoint Pen), yet no one was able to answer until I stepped up (how sad that people know it was K-On! but don’t know the title), and two, I got a Vampire Knight poster for it.

(ok its not exactly this but come on, any poster with this and another dude with him has gotten gay written all over it. Oh and sorry to all the VK fans who read this, its my own personal opinion which is shared by a whole lot of others, so go ahead and block this side note from your eyes XD)

Lots of other games went on, like a sushi making contest, how-long-can-you-hold-your-finger-on-a-piece-of-paper-stuck-to-a-glass-box game (this went on for well over an hour, I think), and a mystery box auction. And there was the classic “guess what’s written on your head” game. Chiaki/Alain wanted to join but his partner was AWOL at the time so too bad.

Then there were bands, acoustic one’s, mind you. I can’t say they were perfect in terms of pitch and lyrics, but overall just for the sake of entertainment they were alright. I mean hey, I was able to get a few new songs for my iTunes library thanks to them.

In celebration of Gundam’s 30th anniversary, the organizers, courtesy of mechapinoy.net, organized a Gundam model kit design contest. There were also Gundam models up for display, some of which were winners of previous competitions as well as classic models from early Gundam shows.

Of course, what everyone went there for (besides the site promotion :D) = COSPLAY!! And what we couldn’t go home without taking a picture of = K-ON COSPLAY! It did take forever to get them to pose as a group though, particularly because their self-proclaimed Mio was always missing in action, but to hell with it, she was cute anyway :3

Basically a fun and productive day. Weren’t a lot on sale though, plus the venue was pretty small, but no matter what disappointment, the K-On pics should still make up for it. And for me, an almost pantsu-shot makes up for everything :)) We’re looking forward to next year’s convention and we hope to see more activities and improvements, as well as more EPIC Cosplays! :mrgreen:

Most of the photos were taken from chiaki’s site. You can view more pics of the event on his site at
http://chiaki06.multiply.com/:

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A month and a couple of days ago, the Chiakiproject team was at one of the biggest annual convention here in the Philippines, ToyconPH. This was also the first time that all of CP team got together (well, except for Onibaku). An event for all “Geeks” so to speak, ToyconPH showcases eye candy not only for toy lovers but also for anime, gaming and hobby enthusiasts with lots of booths containing event oriented merchandise. Here is a brief history of ToyconPH and how it all started:

Collectibles Unlimited Association is a non-profit association based in Metro Manila, whose main objectives are to promote interest in the collection and display of all types of comics,toys, movies, animation, games and related childhood memorabilia; and to maintain a network of collectors to help members keep in touch with each other and advance the collecting hobby.

Collectibles Unlimited was formed in the year of 2002 and is the organizer of the Philippine Toys, Hobbies and Collectibles Convention every year. And also organizes toys, comics and anime related events in Manila.

The group is composed of 5 persons namely Vic Yap, Cholo Mallillin, Albert Lee, Lou Garcia and Azrael Coladilla. The other members of the association are composed of collectors, hobby shop owners, community groups and clubs.

Source: ToyconPH mainsite

The event lasted for two days, June 13 & 14 and was held at SM Megamall, Megatrade Hall 1 & 2 (the event was inside a mall) where it usually is. Note that we only went at day 1 so I’m only writing about that and I may skip some details because I wasn’t at the venue the whole time. Also I don’t have enough pictures to better elaborate some points that I am writing about because I don’t have a camera (Yet, LOL :D). I’ll do better on my future event reviews.

The Line

Like any other conventions, the first thing you might consider is if you’ll go early to catch the flow of the line which possibly may be crowded in a blink of an eye (I’ve been first in line a couple of times LOL :D). Some avid convention attendees may even sleep outside of the venue so that they may be first in line though here in the Philippines that kind of thing isn’t practiced, well atleast not that I know of. 10am, mall gates open I didn’t saw the need to be on hurry thus was confident that the line wouldn’t be that long as I experienced from past ToyconPH events but to my surprise the line that I was expecting to be… went like forever, longer than the previous ones at that hour. Almost a hundred people were at the line when we arrived. That really shows how dedicated fans are to the event.

Through the event

People were really anxious as they wait for the opening. Finally, ToyconPH organizers opened the event officially with a ribbon cutting session. Events like this usually give away freebies to all who come though some events have strict budgets so only a certain number of people can get them. ToyconPH gave away stickers for freebies and posters (I didn’t get any so I don’t know if this is true I just knew this from a friend).

The venue was big enough that you could walk easily compared to other events with small venues wherein you’ll have a hard time moving around constantly squeezing through people traffic, well we were there at the morning but come afternoon the place was packed and when the cosplay catwalk started, people started to gather near the stage making it hard moving in that area. The stage was weirdly on the right inner most area of the venue which I thought was kinda off, taking to account that stages are commonly seen at the middle of the venue for everybody to see easily and be the center point of an event which are mostly used for MC’s, Cosplay, some contests and Bands.

Bands who were there played both Anime/Japanese music and original compositions. Bands are always present in conventions, there are really rare occasions that bands are excluded in events, music is what heightens the atmosphere in any event so “no band = kinda boring to walk around”. Booths were organized, can be easily seen and were evenly spread according to the merchandise, there were also booths for online game distributors showcasing free plays of games that they carry. These booths were also one of the most packed other than the toy booths with gamers waiting for there chance to play for free. Food wasn’t disregarded for there was an area for it so going outside wasn’t necessary but food wasn’t that great and prices were higher than outside food venues, the only thing that I liked in that area was the one selling Juices which was fairly priced with fair heapings. At a corner, there was a wall containing cosplay and toy photography entries which is one of the things I was looking forward at that event. They also had an area for toy collections and large scale/miniature models which I really liked looking through.

Of course, toys (Transformers and Movie based toys) which was the main theme of the event and what else? oh, yes COSPLAYERS!! LOTS AND LOTS OF COSPLAYERS!!! The always infamous Cosplayers which I think 80% or even 100% of attendees was looking forward to see and take a picture with. Cosplayers are everywhere in the event even outside the venue. All were friendly and were willing to take a pose. Characters cosplayed where from both old and new animes, games, movies, toys, mechs, sentai, henshins, neko mimis, goth lolis, lolis, loli maids, goth maids and Visual kei.

Looking at the Cosplayers you’ll see how dedicated everyone is to their craft, some were impressive, some were ok and some were fail-plays. Also at that time was the outbreak of Swineflu”A(h1n1)” which media advised people to wear facemask/flumask’s. Some Cosplayers and even attendees wore facemask/flumask some with cute designs, not for the virus but for fashion which I thought was really stylish.

The Activities

Here is the official schedule of ToyconPH for day 1:

EVENT PROGRAMME DAY 1
June 13, 2009
10am
Ribbon Cutting and Event Opening
Customized Action Figure, Die Cast and Mecha contest submission
TOY CLICKS – Toy Photography contest submission
Cosplay Click – cosplay photography submission
GI JOE Fan Art Contest submission
Band Performance

11am
Band performance – Rakuen Science
Fan film screening
Raffle and Games
Stage games
major sponsors segment
co presentors segment

12nn
Band performance – Faultine
Fan film screening
Raffle and games
major sponsors segment
co presentors segment

1pm
Raffle and games
Live Auctions
Band performance – Plastic Baloo
Kids game – Name that Toon
major sponsors segment
co presentors segment
Signing with Tim Tsui
Cabal Online 1 on 1 Face-off
Dead Fantasy video screening

2pm
Band Performance – REKLAMO
Raffle and games
Kids game – Name that Toon
Live Auctions
major sponsors segment
co presentors segment
ZX stage time

3pm
TRANSFORMERS/GI JOE movie Segment
Band Performance – Haponesang Dilat ( HERO TV segment)
Raffle and Games
Live Auctions
major sponsors segment
co presentors segment
Signing with TobyHK
GE Master’s Tournament (Day 1)
WARNER Bros. movies trailer showing

4pm
Band Performance – Japan Baby
Raffle and games
Individual Cosplay contest catwalk
Live Auctions
Cabal stage time

5pm
Band Performance – Olivia
Raffle and games
Kids game – Name that Toon
Audition Freeplay
6pm
Band performance – Publico
Fan Film screening
Raffle and games
Cosplay winners announcement
Awarding of winners (EGAMES)

7pm
Band performance – Squeezers
Raffle and games
Contest winners announcement
co-presentor segment

8pm
Raffle and games
Live Auctions
co-presentor segment

9pm
Day 1 ends

End of the day

At the end of the day, ToyconPH was again a hit with no problems or atleast problems that weren’t noticed. I was the only one in CP that stayed for closing. Well, it was fun and I really regret that I didn’t go to day 2. I am looking forward for ToyconPH next year and hoping to see more and more improvements.

Photos

Here are more photos of ToyconPH I also included day 2. Note that almost all are Cosplay shots, I didn’t manage to find more toys and event grounds photos. Just click the images below.

All photos are grabbed from their respective owners. Owners are the following:

http://idolsensei007.multiply.com

http://jazminne.multiply.com
http://karlonne.multiply.com
http://magicadik.multiply.com
http://magistermik.multiply.com
http://megamimaine19.multiply.com
http://niko26.multiply.com
http://usagikei.multiply.com
http://vongolaorgy.multiply.com