The Singapore Toy, Games & Comic Convention is one of the biggest pop culture events in South East Asia, held on the 20th and the 21st of August 2011 at Suntec City Convention Center. The line up of special guests for this year includes international talents from Marvel and DC, Japanese anime icons, and designer toy creators from all over the world.

This is our second year at the con, and I have to say a lot of things have been tweaked by the folks at Reed to make sure that STGCC stays fresh and fun. The event was shortened to just two days instead of three, a fairly large Artists Alley has opened up at one side of the hall (it is literally an alley now, not just one or two booths), and the stage events are as fast and furious as the Walk of Fame signing events going on next door.

      

      

There are some truly impressive exhibits on the con floor, such as the sky-high Hot Toys booth featuring many of their exquisitely sculptured pop culture collectibles. Their stuff was definitely “hot”, as their event exclusives sold out within hours of the con opening.

Another ginourmous exhibit booth was by Nintendo, promoting their 3DS console with both display and hands-on units showcasing games like Nintendogs and Cats, Super Monkey Ball 3DS, and many others. It’s really a nice piece of work, but ultimately not my cup of tea — the graphics make me feel woozy so I doubt I’ll be any good playing Mario Kart on it >.>

Newly-minted MMO RPG Dragon Nest was holding a draw at their booth, with a brand new Alienware M14x going to the lucky winner. And in case you were wondering, yes — that is Miyake of Moe Moe Kyun Cafe at the Dragon Nest booth ❤

      

      

Designer toy collectors probably wouldn’t know what hit them as two massive booths from Play Imaginative and TodiDoki are right across the aisle from each other. Fashionable Simoe Legno fans jostled for space alongside from fans of Japanese pop toy studio The Devilrobots.

In the other end of the hall at Artists Alley, Andrew Bell was selling blind boxes of his award-winning Android mini-figures, inspired by the mascot of Google’s mobile computing platform. These were very hot as the entire batch of traditional green figures sold out within house, followed by his event-exclusive O-No-Sushi toy set.

Alongside Bell at Artists Alley were other independent toy design and comic studios releasing their works — some of them for the very first time. One of the more notable displays was by the STGCC Art Concours winner Zi Qi, who offered his works for sale in t-shirt and toy form. Watch out for this upcoming talent in future conventions!

      

      

Last but not least, to the rear of the hall was a Tamiya track where mini 4-wheel racing enthusiasts battled it out for trophies and special prizes from organizers Stargek and Tamiya. The heats were fast and furious, with cars flying off the track at odd intervals (engine RPMs too high, apparently), and photographers jostling for position to catch the cars in action.

Another exhibit that lured in photogs from all over the con floor was the diorama and booth organized by the Singapore Garrison of the 501st Legion. The set up am extensive diorama of Storm Trooper figurines and their matching vehicles, with a couple of Easter eggs thrown in here and there. They also had a charity shoot-out, where a cash donation from con participants will let them shoot Nerf guns at the Troopers — fun!!!

Have I mentioned that they have a working R2D2 droid rolling around making annoyed chirping noises at the crowd? Adorkable ❤

The day wrapped up with voice acting and cosplay panels by Japanese guests Jacky Dosai and Kipi (Watch out for our interviews with both cosplay icons in future posts!). The cosplay talk show done they did drew a lot of interaction from fans via Twitter and other social media venues.

During the talk, Jacky also promoted his project Prayers from Cosplayers — an online photo submission site where cosplayers from all over the world sent in their messages of hope for the people affected by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Kipi, on the other hand, gave words of encouragement to her fellow cosplayers to keep doing their best in cosplay and in everything else.

Last but not least was a deejay set and costumed dance party by Vocaloid master remixers Zaneeds, who flew in all the way from Japan. The crew had an enormously successful run at STGCC, having sold out most of their merchandise such as t-shirts, posters, CDs, and autographed artwork to their Miku-crazy fans.

Continued in Day 2.