The 10th Philippine Toys, Hobbies, and Collectibles Convention was recently held last 18th and 19th June 2011, at the SM Megamall Megatrade Halls 1 through 3. Organized by VicVic Yap of Collectibles Unlimited, this pioneer of Philippine conventions only seems to grow bigger with each passing year. This year featured — among other Toycon regulars such as cosplay competitions, toy dioramas, and photography contests, the filming of “Cosplay Nation” by Chinese film outfit Yian Studios.
2011 Toycon also played host to the 2nd Philippine Finals of Asia Cosplay Meet, where the winner will be representing the country in the Grand Finals to be held in Singapore this 25th June 2011. The competition was judged by last year’s Grand Finals Co-winner Jia Gold Bustamante, who was one of the three individual representatives from the Philippines. This year’s round is a team competition, and was won by Team Tenshi no Maou — Riyo Lendl Enriquez, Claudine De Jesus, and Marianne Bella Topacio.
The last time we exhibited at ToyCon was in 2007, when the local Pinky:St community Kalye Pinky thought it was a good idea to put up a booth and get more people to join the club. Four years later it’s still basically the same girls collecting Pinkies, but collections have grown drastically to the point that it was time to get rid of some doubles (and triples and quadruples). It was the perfect time to put up another selling booth.
Being stuck behind an exhibitor’s table, you get a different sense of the convention compared to a regular con-goer. Instead of being concerned about how many good photos you can get of the cosplayers and the displays, or how many freebies and contest prizes you can score, as an exhibitor you are more concerned about how well the human traffic is moving past your booth, how good the turnover of your merch is, and what’s the lowest price you can give on an item just to make a sale.
And sell, we did. As one of the most-anticipated events on the local calendar, collectors have been saving up for months in advance for the chance to blow it all at Toycon. There were booths selling designer vinyl and customizable toys, cold-cast resin and plaster figures, comic books and manga, action figures and mini-figs, and every other imaginable collectible in between. There were also a few oddities like booths for health supplements and children’s multivitamins, but generally there was a good cross-section of sellers catering to the many different levels of fandom.
Although most of the booths did brisk business and personally I had no complaints about our sales, there were some gaffs on the part of the secretariat that seriously inconvenienced many sellers; the tragedy is these could have been easily avoided if the events team had communicated properly with each other. There were several incidents of the lights going out in the dealers hall, just because there was something going on at the event hall that needed the lights turned off. Uh Halls 1, 2, and 3 are wired differently, guys — all you had to do was switch the lights off in Hall 3 
There was also that particularly annoying announcement by one member of the event staff asking — nay, commanding all con-goers to leave Hall 1 and gather in Hall 2, without giving a good reason beforehand. Excuse me, but we exhibitors paid good money for those people to be there and looking at our wares — why the hell were you dragging them out from underneath us and putting them somewhere else where they can’t buy our stuff?! Dick move, kid — I hope you’re proud of what you did
There is also that one other shoving incident in the center of Hall 2 late in the afternoon, but as we were located in Hall 1 we were blissfully unaware of what was going on. I’ve only heard of second-hand reports, but apparently one of the people caught in the crush was a pregnant lady who was slammed against an exhibitors table by the crowd of over-eager cosplay fans? For shame I hope the organizers learned a lesson in crowd control and hall layouting so that this incident doesn’t happen again in the future.
JPOP Manila 
Good to see you guys there. I spent a huge chunk of money on your area and that wasn’t even past 11 AM. Hehe.
I can only imagine how it was like for that lady. 😦 We avoided that area in the afternoon, although it was quite difficult to get from one end to the other because of a crowd in the middle of the halls.
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LOL still cant get over the “To all con organizers, nandito na merienda niyo!” announcement. XD It did brought out those “Paano naman kaming mga gutom?!” comments all over. And to think they did it several times over, hehehe!
But unfortunately the only thing not worth laughing over was the public announcement of “Attention of the parents of 3 lost kids”. First, there was no instruction where to go (only later on did they add that rather important info), second was the description of the kids? Are they all boys? All girls? A girl and two boys or vice versa? They could have asked for the kids’ last names and asked who was with them. Are they so young they couldnt be asked who their parents are? And then discretely announced “To (Mr. and Mrs.)/(name of legal guardian)/(name of Relative in charge) to come to the booth immediately!” to avoid potential embarrassment to all parties involved.
And yes, plus the plowing of bodyguards through an area known and expected to be absolutely crowded with customers. People tend to forget past “bodyguard incidents” apparently.
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@kat congratulations on your new acquisitions! and yes, that unfortunate incident in hall 2 could have been avoided if people were more considerate of others
@eva_guy01 maybe it’s just me, but the guys handling the PA system should’ve been given pointers by someone in customer service — like a veteran contact center agent or a concierge
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Whoever handled the PA system definitely had a lot of bloopers.
Thanks. I’m glad you weren’t yet around when I was buying them or else lalo akong napagastos hahaha.
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I thought I was the only one noticed about the PA.I just dont know if kinapos ng budget sila ngayon to hire a decent PA staff. In my years of attending this convention, Ito lang naman yung First time na ganun yun..Also the shoving incident was because the now popular Queen of Cosplay is coming. Her alleged “hawi boys” where Over reacting and protecting her and kung di ba naman sila Stupid, why the hell they need to pass into the crowded and congested path and in middle of the store owners and pwede naman dun sa may Stage area para walang masyadong tao.. The hawi boys leading the path even shove my back and I was busy looking some toys and I almost lost my balance and leaned on the table and my face almost hiting the toys and he is shouting on top of his lungs “p_ _ _ng ina! tabi! Tabi,tabi! To my dismay I pushed him back and said Ikaw tumabi!..
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hahahah no worries kat 😀 i may home some more stuff to let go soon
hi G.G. — so sorry to hear that you were one of the victims of the shoving incident 😦
and you’re right — they should know by now that big crowds and small aisles do not mix 😦
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Yaaack….hawi boys with terrible manners?Politician ba yang pumunta sa Toycon??O___O…Kung di lang over-reacting ang ulan sa lugar namin, nakapunta ako dyan sa Toycon.Kainis.>,<
Malamang kung pumunta rin ako dyan, mae-encounter ko na naman ang mga cosplayers na OA ang paglalagi sa mga comfort rooms at wala nang pakialam sa mga ordinary mall-goers na gusto lang gumamit ng mga CR. Juice me, anong ginagawa ng SMX convnetion halls, bakit puro sa Megamall na lang kung saan ang liit-liit ng venue?Akong nahihiya para sa mga stores duon na lagi na lang nape-perwisyo ng mga pasaway na mga tao (fotogs and cosplayers and fans) ng mga con!
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