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Posted December 10, 2011 by Tony Tuason in Events
 
 

COMPLETE Guide for the Christmas Toycon 2011

Christmas, time of recieving but more importantly – giving and sharing (Naks!).  And of course, when xmas time comes, we think of gifts all the time! Every year, geeky boys and girls in Metro Manila look forward to geek events, especially in events where we can buy a lot of gifts, to give to our loved ones, that special someone, or for ourselves – as a reward for our damn hard work this year!

But fear not geek-believers!! The Christmas version of the annual ToyCon — The “The Christmas Toy Fair” also known as the “Xmas ToyCon” is coming next week. The Xmas Toycon this year is gonna be like an event within an event, since it will be hosting the 1st Philippine Diecast & Custom Car Show too. See here for more Xmas ToyCon 2011 details.

WHAT TO SEE AND EXPECT

The FlipGeeks boys will be there, and right now we’re gonna try to help you out on how to prepare for the fair and tell you what you can do during the fair  (^_^). For starters lets start with the venue, its gonna be held at the Megatrade Hall 1, 5th Level Mega B, and I hope you all know where Megamall is – its the big mall along EDSA in Ortigas. And below is the floor plan of the event:

Most of us already know and are familiar with stores that are usually seen in toy events like – 2Rats, CS Central, Wasabi Toys, Comic Odyssey, etc. But this year, toy booths and stores are more than last year’s fair. Here’s are the stores that will be present in this year’s Xmas Toy Fair — Incredible Toys, Cadimus Prime, Hobbyte Toy Store, CS Central, Mac Kolektibolz, Electromagnetic Tentacles, Kramer, JAE, Bigtoys, Akihabara, Otakus Den, Fashion Lenses, Cool Republic, Toy Stash, Keybie Cafe, The Franchise, Devangelic, Japanimation, Otakuzine, Comicx Hub and more. The Toy Fair won’t be limited to the selling of Toys only, you can expect booths that sells Comics, Accessories, Shirts and other items too.

Although the Xmas Fair isn’t as big as TOY CON when it comes to activities and programs, it will have the 1st Phil Diecast & Custom Car show by the Diecast Collectors of the Philippines (DCPH) . I’m not really into diecast cars, but it is very interesting what the DCPH has in store for us.

Tons of rare, vintage and cool diecast car models are sure to be expected. So if you are a collector, the event would really feel like heaven to you. And DCPH will also be featuring some custom cars. I usually see a lot of custom action figures, custom gundams and other toys, but I haven’t seen a custom diecast car, so I’m quite excited to see those cars during the fair! They’ll also have a Diecast Car Customizing activity, so be sure to drop by on the DCPH show area when this happens.

The Xmas Toy fair still welcomes cosplayers even though there won’t be any cosplay competition, but hey, they’ll have a program called “Coswalk” (im not sure what this will be about) and the “Cosparade” (cosplayers will parade around the entire mall). Aside from the usual exhibits and tiangge, the fair will also include Toy Auctions, Gravity Race and prizes to be Raffled!

So expect a lot of people to show up, better practice those “boxing out” techniques!

DONATE and GIVE LOVE ON XMAS DAY

We earlier mentioned about Xmas is the time of giving, and the Xmas Toy Fair is a great venue for that. The fair will have a Toy Drive, so if you have some old stuff and toys from your childhood that you can already let go or dispose, drop by at the event. If you do have some stuff to dispose, and you’re having a hard time deciding on the fate of your toys, then I suggest you watch TOY STORY and think about Andy, Buzz and Woody!!

C’mon you can do it, let go! Think of the children  that you’ll make happy this Christmas. If you do have stuff to donate, and you don’t want to enter the fair (but we strongle suggest that you do), feel free to email us or comment below, and we’ll find a way on how to include your stuff in the Toy Drive.

HUNTING FOR TOYS

Lastly, and the favorite part of what to do in the Xmas Toy Fair is hunting for toys or “Toy Hunt“. A lot of collectors do this, especially during toy events, since a lot of stuff are brought out by the toy stores and especially because it is Xmas time and they know that there will be a lot of buyers. So if you’re looking for something, be sure to make a list of the items that you’ll be hunting. Also, be sure to save up some cash and bring some extra too, since you might see a lot of cool stuff that you’d like to buy. As a collector, I would advice the following:

1) if you have the money and you see something that you really like – then go buy it before someone else buys it, you might not see it again in stores in the future or for a very looooong time (this is true btw).

2) Try to ask the vendors to lower the prices if needed, it is also great if you do some research on the current prices before the event on the items you’ll be hunting – There are a lot of ways to do this, you can check out the price by going the website of the manufacturer, or looking it up at ebay or sulit, or from toy forums – this is important so that you’ll know if you’ll be getting the item at a fair price.

3) Be patient and look at the items sold in the booths very carefully - a boot in a toy event will usually have lots of items spread out in their table, it could be loose or still carded, they could have storage boxes or crates in front of their booths, so be sure to check out each booth very carefully or try to dig on those toy crates (but be careful while doing this, since you wouldn’t want to break some items) – because usually some cool items are hidden from plain sight, or maybe its in the bottom of a pile of toys.

4) Eat like a KING before entering the fair - you better have lots of energy, since you’ll spend all the time standing and walking around the fair.

SIMPLY HAVE FUN

It doesn’t mean that you have to have lots of money in order to enjoy the Xmas Toy Fair. I’ve been through a lot of toy fairs and conventions, and based on my experience, it’s okay to drool on cool items that i want even though I don’t have the money to buy them, since it’s all part of the fun. Even if you bring a small amount of money, it might surprise you that in the end, you can happily spend them on some cool and great items. So don’t think that you should have lots of money for you to enjoy the fair, since there’s a lot to see during the event, and a lot of great items that you can buy very cheap. Lastly, looking at the toys – old and new, will bring a certain amount of happiness to you and might bring back those sweet childhood memories of you and your toys. So be a kid again, and simply have fun!

See you next week at the Xmas Toy Fair and check out some pics below from last year’s Xmas Toy Fair (courtesy of Azrael Coladilla)


Tony Tuason

 
Tony is just your average guy who loves comics, toys, games, movies, and all those geek goodness.