Mulling over Day 1 of Collecticon 2009

Pictures from the event held at Robinson's Ermita. My wife Sandie and my sister-in-law  Iya went with me last Saturday morning. It was a bit far from our place and I was still woozy from a slight fever and lack of sleep from a late night video shoot. After arriving there, Sandie had to leave for a meeting at the Ramon Obusan Folkloric Centre, leaving me and Iya to go around the place. She came back at around 7pm and we went on a buying spree before heading off to Friday's for a huge dinner.

During the con, I also hooked up with the guys of  Toy Soldier 1:18 -- a great bunch of talented, helpful and friendly Filipino 3 3/4 G.I. Joe collectors. I'm a recent member of the forums and I've enjoyed the many discussions that pepper the boards daily and am slowly growing my own collection. For the event, TS1:18 presented a modular diorama consisting of G.I. Joe stock figures, customs and various vehicles, accessories and playsets. The firt part of the day portrayed a G.I. Joe diorama depicting the Joe's forward operations base. during the afternoon, the setup changed to a Cobra themed diorama with the awesome vintage Terrordrome as the centerpiece. (Click here for more pictures of the TS1:18 diorama: Operation Sidewinder Verde)

I managed to pick up a few good pieces here and there with the highlight being the acquisition of 4 various Shelby Cobras, 6 vintage mustangs and an assortment of really nice muscle cars. I also picked up a few action figures for wargaming and for my custom G.I. Joe project.

As a whole the con, which is only on its second year, was a bit average with most of the vendors and exhibitors being from the secondary sales market -- yup, the usual suspects present at most local toy cons. Direct participation of the major toy brands seemed virtually nil. Hot Wheels and and the like were brought in by a toy store and not by the local distributors themselves. It would've been nice if stuff like Stikfas, designer vinyls, Bandai, Tamiya, Dragon, Trumpeter, Hot Toys, etc were present. Major retailers such as Hobbes and Landes were also missing and so were the hobby shops like Lil's, JMN Hobbies and Special Toy Center.   There were some sideshow collectibles but mainly old stuff. Seems like I've been seeing the same stuff from con to con for some time now. And the programs, auction and cosplay display weren't too hot either. I did enjoy the demos, especially the painting and customizing portions. However, the event organizers should provide their guests some form of A/V system display so the audience can see what the guest is explaining/doing.  ThePhilippine R/C Drifters were demoing the whole day but there really wasn't any effort or chance to have the viewing audience try out the hobby. Cool cars though. I kinda liked the displays by groups like Jan Calleja and Art Department. This kind of exhibit adds individuality to the event.

 

 

All in all, the event would hold your attention for awhile, especially if you're looking for old toys not currently being sold on the main retail market. As far as variety goes though, the event gave me some yawns. The programs were blah and even the cosplay even "Blah"nder. Personally, the highlight for me were the awesome figures & dioramas being showcased by TS1:18:)  That said, I begged off from day 2 of the event and decided to stay home and rest instead. Hopefully, the event organizers would do a post-mortem and beef up the event's content and programs next year. Here's to something better and bigger next year! Check out more pictures of Collecticon 2009 here!