ToyCon 2014: A Toy Collector's Heaven!

There was a huge convention about anything toy-related at SM Megamall's Megatrade Halls last June 20-22, more popularly known as "ToyCon"! It was my first time to attend their event, and I saw a lot of interesting things!

My ticket to toy heaven!!

More pictures after the break, so let me share with you my experiences!

First off, I went to the ToyCon 2014 on June 20. That's last Friday, by the way. Because I have my schedule full on weekends (unfortunately), I went to the ToyCon on a weekday. Even though I haven't gone to a lot of conventions similar to this, I (and anyone else, really) can pretty much tell that most of the events will happen during the weekend schedule. That's because most people work on weekdays.

Let's start at Megatrade Hall 1. Yay!

The first thing I saw... Voltez V! (There's Daimos, too. Ah, memories...)

Lego figures! Remember. Mega Blocks and Lego are not the same thing. They're just not.

Toy shops are all over the place! I don't know where to start! (Well, this is where I started..)

Big toys for the "Big Boys"!

I've seen this before, and I still can't afford to buy one.. (I'm a huge Eraserheads fan!)

...and that's pretty much what happened. When I arrived (at around 11AM), the place only had a handful of people wandering around, but there were A LOT OF TOYS! There were a lot of hobby stores present on the floor and, of course, they've brought along the toys they were selling. I did my best not to give in to the temptation (of burning a hole through my pocket)..

Star Wars, anyone?

Stormtroopers and Clone Troopers everywhere whenever there are Star Wars stuff!

"Darth Malgus", right? From that "Old Republic" game? I haven't played it, so I'm not really familiar with him.

More troopers!

More toys! Oooh, look, it's HellBoy!

"Dark Angel Olivia"... This is my favorite, so far. Not familiar with her, though..

Looks nice, but her ginormous bow kinda blocks the rest of the figure.

That one with the gear-thingies!

Swords? From whom is this thing, though?

The mecha on the lower left almost kinda looks like a GM Custom! (But, it's not.)

It's inevitable to see some Iron Man stuff. And there's going to be more of them later.

More toys! Super Hero figures!

Ah, one of my favorite Anime/Manga ever! 

Anime Figures! Wish I took a picture of those, close-up.

Superman: "Wish you didn't hog up all the screen time, dude."

A lot of toys here in the ToyCon, I'm not really familiar with...

This time, I went alone. Since most of my friends have work so I went by myself. I had a hard time getting pictures because sometimes I feel awkward whenever someone's either near me or near the subject I'm taking a picture of. Don't know why. There were a lot of amateur photographers, too, with their DSLRs hanging around their necks. I didn't bring the D500 because I just find it too heavy..

You can actually get inside that box for your snapshots.

...and since it's Batman's 75th anniversary, there are a lot of Batman-related stuff.

Batman! Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na!

Hey, remember Batman's old Batmobiles from his previous movies? Which one is the best?

Batman always looks so pissed.

One of the awesome looking statues here at ToyCon. It must be REALLY expensive.

Captain America, life-size!

Here are more statues, placed here randomly. Look, there's Optimus Prime. You'll see him a lot here, as well.

Marvel! (vs. Capcom! XD)

Wooooaah! (I'm in Megatrade Hall 2! XD)

More statues. Superman's hovering in the air!

Who's going to win if these two fight?

This is creepy as hell.. No, I do not want to play a game with you!

See? More Iron Man!

Wow, classic X-Men!

Because I sometimes feel awkward when taking pictures, I wasn't able to take photos of some of the things in the event. I should probably formulate some sort of system the next time I go to an Anime/Comics/Toys Convention, so I don't miss some of the great things..

One of ToyCon 2014's main highlights, the trailer for the next 2 Live-Action Rurouni Kenshin films!

Here's one of Kenshin's actual costumes in the movie. Neat!

Aoshi's going to be in the movie as well! I can't wait!

For some reason, I really don't like the Sanosuke in the movie. Hmmm... Oh well.

There are snapshots of "behind-the-scenes" moments on the wall as well.

That would make for an awesome wallpaper!

August 20 and September 24. Mark your calendars, people.

I don't think the Megatrade Halls are bigger than SMX's Convention Center, but the place is still freakin' huge! I have to cover a lot of ground here, if I want to get my money's worth.

So, even though I'm walking around, just taking pictures at random, I wanted to shoot as much as I can. The most awkward shots that I took are the ones when I snap a photo of a store where the store clerks are looking at me... And there are a ton of shops remaining at the back of Megatrade Hall.

Woah. Needleman? LOL.

Knights. The way their supposed to look in old times.

Is that Jason's mask?

Stores, stores everywhere!

Toys, toys everywhere!

American toys are more popular here than toys from other countries, I noticed.

More Batman stuff. Although these ones are for sale.

Busts of several superheroes. I wonder how much these cost...

Kratos, looking angry as usual.

"Gotta make my booth look nice."

These toys look like they're supposed to have boxes. Hmmm..

This store sells tanks! Not just plastic model tanks, remote-controlled tanks!

If you're a collector, and you really don't have a dedicated display shelf for your figurines, maybe you should buy one of these.

Tamago Cases also sells bigger ones, if you have big statues.

More stores. That's Donayre, right there. ...what?

Comic Odyssey! I don't really read comics, but I used to buy manga from them a few years ago.

Filbar's! They also sell comics. Filbar's is everywhere.

This is a very good-looking display shelf. Let's see what's inside..

More Batman Stuff! ...and a "Power Ranger"? That's from one of the old Japanese Sentai shows that I'm not familiar with.

Mazinger Z!

What are these, crash-test dummies?

Hmmmm... Nope. Not interested with any of these.

Hmmmm... Nope, I don't think I know any of these guys.

Charlie Chaplin? I like that guy!

Jim Carrey! Yeah, the only guy that can wear a thousand costumes, and you'd still know that it's him.

I saw a 3D Printer on the show floor, as well. In the future, we'll be able to create toy figures of our own! (Actually, some are already doing that now. Some are even doing that before now.)

Dragon Nest. When a friend asked me if I know this game, I thought it was called "Dragonness". Huh.

Yup, it's not all toys, of course! We have game booths as well. Here's a game booth for DC Universe Online.

Of course, you have a game booth from Level Up! Games.

I see two guys here, playing a Jojo game. Looks really neat, too. I should take a look at that sometime..

I was surprised to see an Oculus Rift here! Who would've thought that the first time I'd get to see it in action is at ToyCon? I'm too shy, though, so I didn't try it.

There are a lot of stores and exhibits on the floor (I think I've been saying that a lot), and there are a few stores that stood out to me the most. I really didn't buy anything toy-related at the convention, but I did buy 2 items that I found interesting. Ironically, they were not toys.

"pop.junk.love". They sell cute stuff from cartoons/anime/comics/manga/games, like stuffed toys or keychains. I bought 2 keychains here for myself and a friend. Yay!

This booth is the most interesting area for me, because they're selling Deleter items!

Also, this is the only place with cosplayers. Cute! (Since I went on a weekday, there weren't a lot of cosplayers on the floor, which is sad..)

They were also selling Hobby JAPAN! Magazine. One of which contains a Gunpla accessory (which appeared in a Gundam Build Fighters manga). I had a REALLY hard time resisting to buy this.

At the back of this booth, there's another booth selling Bandai stuff. As you all know, I'm a sucker for Bandai stuff. But I must resist spending my money!

There were also a few Figmas on display at the side. 

Hatsune Miku!! Someday, I'm gonna buy a Hatsune Miku figurine.

WasabiToys! I like WasabiToys! It was a little awkward to take this booth's picture, though.. Look at all those Gunpla!

There's more! At Megatrade Hall 3, there was another exhibit of toys and life-size statues of superheroes! They were placed at the very end of the hall, against the wall so everyone can see them.

Life-size superhero statues! It's Superman and his gang. For some reason, Iron Man got included in the mix.

War Machine has his own display area. Neat.

An Iron Man statue. Also, a Superman vs. Batman statue. ...what? 

More figurines. Marvel and DC characters, randomly placed on this table.

X-Men. This looks pretty neat.

It's Storm's old look!

Life-size Fantastic Four's "The Thing". Looks OK, I guess.

Life-size Super Saiyan Son Goku!

A Batman diorama! Nice-looking and incredible detail!

But most Anime fans would be directing their eyeballs to this side, where the Shingeki no Kyojin figures are displayed.

I gotta say... They really like the Hulk.

So, if you also like the Hulk, visit their Facebook page!

Comics? Obligatory. Game characters? Sure. NBA players? Hmmm.. Filipino Movie Characters? Huh. Jesus Christ? ...what?!

FPJ and Panday fans, here's a treat for you.

Batman's staring at me, looking very annoyed.

I guess they make statues.

Also, this awesome-looking Ryu vs. Sagat diorama! Ah, it takes me back.. 

Here's the exit! (Megatrade Hall 3) Let's take a picture of this wall before I take my leave.

Outside, there's another life-size "The Thing" displayed. I think the other one I saw previously was better.

Some of the things that I've missed listed on the event highlights (scheduled on other dates/time) were the "Cosplay Universe & World Cosplay Summit Philippine Finals", the "Panel Discussions", and the "Toy Customizing Competitions". But, in the end, I still had a great time!

...and now, for the bus ride home. See you again next year, ToyCon!

I'm looking forward to ToyCon 2015 and I'll be sure to save some money so I can actually buy some toys. Hope you attend the next event as well! I'll see you on the next post!