Apart from the artworks and merchandise sold during the Singapore Toys, Games, Comic Convention (STGCC) ’09, there were also quite a number of cosplayers who attended the event.. You could say that there were alot of them (but that couldn’t beat the number of photogs who were there as well.. =3 ).. One of the most epic cosplay I’ve seen so far is by far the Black Rock Shooter (BRS) [Above].. Truly a wonderful cosplay done..

Well, there are also some good cosplays I took pictures of during the event.. I hope you guys like them.. Enjoy~

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I shall end my post with this epic cosplay mix of Krauser in Kaito outfit.. Or shall we call him “KAISER~!!”?? XD

You could say that this year there are more Vocaloid cosplays than other anime cosplays like Naruto or D-Grayman (There were plenty of them last year, honest!!).. Well, other than that, they seem to enjoy the event as much as the rest did.. I do expect photoshoots coming out on forums and picture sites.. XD

At last, the epic event for the month of August has finally ended.. It is none other than the Singapore Toys, Game, Comic Convention (STGCC) ’09 or known to some as “ToyCon”, “ComiCon” and etc.. Well, just like the year before when it made its debut run, the event is filled with so many booths catering to all walks of life; from children to adults who perhaps have a “child at heart”..

First up, lets talk about the Nintendo booth which occupies quite a large area just in front of the main entrance.. They were there to promote their newest game, the Wii Sports Resort where people get to jetski or even “lightsaber-slash” opponents.. Apart from that, there is also a Wii version of Guitar Hero where ppl can try playing songs with instruments..

Well, there are also some cosplayers who got to try out the game itself.. Click here to see the pics.. XD

Nintendo also have some other new games like “Valhalla Knights” and “Spectrobes”.. Didn’t get a chance to try any of the games this year though.. =3

Next up is Bandai and the Gachapon team where they sell quite a number of gunplas and other mecha-related stuff from Macross and etc.. There were alot of Gachapon machines located at a few spots inside the convention hall..

Next, lets move on to the Art section where alot of artists set up their booth there.. We get to see some famous ones like Doodolls..

I love this art-wall by TokiDoki by Simone Legno (Thanks Lethia for the info).. XD

Although some won’t recognise the names first hand but they are quite famous on DeviantART (DA) or at their own site like this for example..

I was quite shock to see that Zemotion set up a booth to sell some of her epic pictures/artworks.. It was already nice looking at them via DA but when I look at them on-site (as in the booth itself..), the pictures were amazing..

Some of the artworks on display.. I forgot who she shared the booth with though.. Gomen.. =3

Another famous one would be Joe Ledbetter.. His artwork/figurines, though some might find it abit strange, they are very unique in a sense IMO..

One of his creations~

Blythe was also there to promote their range of dolls and also the different outfits.. They also showcased some wonderful dolls like this one (below)..

As per usual, KKnM was there to sell their range of anime-stuffs from posters to mugs to > 9000 items.. Just take a look at their booth and you’ll understand.. XD

Well, thats all I have for the event coverage.. Although this year’s event is bigger than the one before, I didnt spend much time in the convention area itself except for the time I spent in the Arts Section.. Too bad the location of the event was at the corner of the convention hall, very packed indeed till human traffic can come to a halt sometimes..

Other than that, I did enjoy the event very much.. Perhaps after my BMT has ended, I can spend more time walking around in events than I did this time round.. I shall post about the cosplay part next so do wait for it.. XD

As some of you might know, I am an avid Hatsune Miku fan (Hence being called Miku Guardian in Team Blue).. Being a Miku fan, I try to find any nice songs by her, collecting figurines of her even to the extent of getting anything Hatsune Miku-related..

Well,as you can see in the above picture, those are currently all my Hatsune Miku-related stuffs; from figurines to artworks.. Well, let us begin with figurines..

I am sure you all know some of the Hatsune Miku figurines, especially the Good Smile ones.. Well we have the Nendo Hatsune Miku.. For figure review of her, click here..

Then I have the Max Factory Figma Miku.. A very cool figma indeed since she has her own mic stand and of course the 2 leeks that comes with her… xD

I didn’t make any figure review of Figma Miku but I did bring her out for an outing.. For more pics of her with DMC, click here..

Then we have the 1/8 GSC Hatsune Miku.. Shiny outfit indeed.. ^^

Sadly, I didn’t have enough time to review the 1/8 GSC Miku.. I will do so when time permits..

Next up, we have Hatsune Miku artworks.. Nothing would be more beautiful than an artwork since the artist painstakingly drew and paint the artwork all by him/herself.. Well, drawing is easy.. Painting beautifully on the other hand takes practice and patience..

Well, we can begin with this big Black★Rock Shooter (BRS) artwork by Kaizeru.. The original Black Rock Shooter is originally created (drawn, painted,etc) by Huke.. Well, I got this artwork at the end of a recent art exhibition showcasing digital arts; Kaleidoscope..

This is a close-up shot of BRS..

BRS looks splendid in the artwork.. It was totally great to see one of the many beautiful artwork of her.. Well, this is made possible by the Collateral Damage Studios (CDS) team.. Thanks guys.. For more info about Kaleidoscope, click here..

Next we have this small Miku artwork.. Though small in size, the art looks fantastic.. I would like to thank the group who made this for CosFest but unfortunately I already forgotten their name.. Pity.. -_-;;

For more info about this loot from CosFest, click here.. ^^

Last of this category is the Kei’s Gallery Artbook by Kei himself.. The artbook was hard to get IMO since I’ve been searching it high and low for a few months before Squee told me about it being sold at Kinokuniya..

However, it was actually Feidamu who got it for me.. Thanks Fei.. ^^

Anyway, the artbook is filled with alot of Kei’s artworks; all of them are stunningly beautiful.. I couldn’t resist but to see evry artwork for myself.. Other than just the Hatsune Miku and the Kagamine Twins artwork, there are also other great artworks,some of them even from animes like Gurren Lagann..

I have yet to review this artbook so do wait for it.. ^^

Well, lets move on to music then.. Music is the key that connects people around the world.. Music can also bring people closer to one another.. As for me, listening to Hatsune Miku’s songs does bring me closer to some of the Hatsune Miku fans out there like Kevinay and Kazearashi..

For a start, lets begin with Talisman, an OST + Artbook combine into one.. This was made by the CDS group and it has some beautiful Hatsune Miku songs and even artworks made by the group themselves…

To see more on this, click here..

Moving on to the most popular Hatsune Miku music album, Re;Packaged.. A very good album by the Livetune group.. It has great songs like “Last Night, Good Night’ and “Light Song”.. Listening to those songs back then makes me want to get this album itself..

This was thanks to Kazearashi for ordering it for me from Amazon.jp.. The album looks nice; back and front.. It was totally exhilarating getting this album since they were not sold in Singapore at all.. xD

Well, thats totally the end of the Hatsune Miku related stuff I have to show you guys/gals.. I hope you enjoyed reading this entry.. If you do want to get one of these, do get it from Amazon.jp, they are the most trustworthy place to get original goods..

But don’t think that this is just the end of the collection.. I still have my hopes on getting more official Hatsune Miku stuffs.. Here are some of them:

The Volks Hatsune Miku…

The Sega’s UFO-Catcher Hatsune Miku.. Looks simple yet pretty.. ^^;

Last but not least, the chibi Miku from the Mixing Box set.. I have yet to get this one… Maybe very soon indeed.. xD

Getting these Hatsune Miku stuffs isn’t always easy and some of them are quite expensive (due to expensive shipping).. I do hope that future stuffs will get slightly cheaper so that I can save money for things other than just Hatsune Miku.. ^^

Oh well, gonna end this entry here then.. This is the Miku Guardian, signing off.. ^-^

Wow…just wow.

The management there was atrocious, simply atrocious. I kinda expected this sorta stuff though; this is Singapore’s first venture into something like this.

(Warning, image-heavy post ahead!)

(Apologies if the image previews look horrible, I’m using forced resize here. )

That sight you see above greeted my brother and I when we arrived on the 6th floor yesterday. Not good, I thought. The line appeared to zig zag across the entire floor, possibly to infinity…and beyond. Heh.

Luckily my brother’s blogger friends, who also happen to be part of a blogger group called Team Blue, were quite ahead in the queue, so we just sidled in, commenting on how freaking long the queue was. And that was the queue for the pre-registrants; those who were going to register were in a shorter queue which didn’t zig zag, though it did stretch nearly the entire length of the floor, and get this: it was actually moving faster. Like, all we pre-registrants had to do was to state our name and e-mail address we registered online with, collect our stuff and be on our way, and somehow that was slower than actually registering on-site.

Can’t get any worse you say? Oh yes, yes it can.

After waiting for a while, the queue we were in was moving faster, though the queue for those registering on-site was still way faster. Then the unthinkable happened, the sort of thing you so do not do at an event where lots of impatient Singaporeans are queuing up.

“No need to queue! Just go in! No need to register!” shouted one of the staff standing nearby. This was where it got ugly.

The excessively long queue dissolved.

At first the line kept moving faster and faster, but then Team Blue decided to split off from the queue and cut through an opening straight through to the entrance. There, we saw the results of the management’s very intelligent move: a seething mass of homo sapien attempting to cram into the entrance, us included.

Well, not really, at least not for me.

In the chaos, I split up from my brother and ended up being with two of his buddies, Kenny and Gai. Both of them decided that instead of heading straight through the entrance, we would go get our passport as we were supposed to from the pre-registration pick-up booth.

So off we went, pushing people out of the way, until we reached the booth which was outside the convention centre but still close enough to the entrance itself. In there, it was hell. I pitied the poor people manning the booth; they were probably regretting that decision they made.

We then just shouted at the people (hey, it was chaotic), “Hey, we preregistered!”, and they handed over our passport, a wrist band pass, an events guide, and a Sonic poster.

What?

At that point, it occurred to me that I just wasted my time registering for the convention online, when I could have simply squeezed through to the counter, claim that I pre-registered, and got my goodies, ready to go and sashay in.

Tch.

To cut the story short, everyone eventually got their passports, and we met up near the Wii booth. Picture is panther with some random chick there. At that point I was starting to realise that maybe I should have brought a bag along, what with all the goodies we haven’t gotten yet. So off we went, to wander around and see the sights and stuff.

We saw cool stuff like Star Wars merchandise:

And heads, lots of them too.

We visited the Collateral Damage Studios booth, and we noticed a booklet full of very pretty fanart including one of the great Vocaloid herself. Maybe I’ll blog about that when I get the time. Too bad it was sold out after we decided to buy it, which was much much later. Ah well, brother’s gonna buy it tomorrow (using my moolah -_-) so…

Moving on (and skipping a lot of content here, surf the other blogs from Team Blue to find out more), we saw a booth claiming it doesn’t exist.

Singapore Polytechnic joined the fun too (for obvious reasons ).

LEGO had some very cool ‘sculptures’ on display as well.

Next in our list is some dubbed anime called “Bakugan: Battle Brawlers”. The anime itself isn’t bad and all…

Except that a certain company is sponsoring it.

At this point, panther was complaining he didn’t have a torch to burn the booth down. Who needs a torch, just get a lighter. Or a molotov cocktail.

We then visited 77 Star, known for creating an animation out of Flash, encoding it to Quicktime, and calling it an anime, ‘Singapore’s 1st anime’, in fact.

The 501st Legion also had a booth nearby; I thought the armor on show was pretty damn cool, and that’s not counting all the Storm Troopers marching around, their duty apparently to become subjects of photographs taken by fans, and not to enforce justice/the Dark Side.

Skipping over some booths (sorry), we got bored and went back to the Wii booth to watch people play (and fail at miserably…mostly) Guitar Hero III for quite some time.

Then this kid appeared out of nowhere, being the next bigshot journalist in town and snapping photos like a…kid. We thought it was cute, and the remaining members of Team Blue (about 3, excluding me, since I’m not in Team Blue) snapped photos of the boy snapping photos of the people failing at GH3, while I muttered “Lolicons,” under my breath. Okay, I actually said it out loud while laughing, but details, details.

And off to the D&D booth for a free demo session! The game’s not that hard once you understand the basic rules, but goddamn, it gets very very complicated later on (if you make it a hobby, that is). You get a free deck for trying though. ^^

And what’s a convention like this without a cosplay competition? No Haruhi here, guys, the anime one is today, yesterday’s theme was movies. We met Gordonator here (hah, no mugshots of him here you fools!) too, sitting in the guest seats, friggen hell, and somehow we got to sit with him too. As expected, Mr. Clone Trooper won the first prize. And he got a friggen’ iPod nano too. Well, it’s not an iPod Touch, but still.

The Jedis who entered under the Group category were pretty cool though, they won first prize too. Then again, they had only one other opponent in the same category, LOL.

And as a bonus, Allen Walker ‘Rocker’!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V4gIqkDGOI&fmt=18]

(He sucked at it though.)

And finally, all the epic loot we collected (for free, I might add):

Ah well, that’s about it. I won’t be covering day 2, since I’ll have work to do. Lots of it, btw, so if you’re looking for that, or for a closer look at the epic loot, go to my brother’s blog or the Flickr pool.

P.S. The Godzilla x Ultraman yaoi on-stage was really, really epic. More epic than the Godzilla facepalm. Too bad my bro was too slow to get it on camera.

Yep, that’s right boys and girls, I’m heading over to that convention tomorrow.

From what I can gather, it’s going to feature lots of otaku stuff, but nothing as hardcore as other otaku-based fairs in other countries, but I don’t really mind. I do have a slight interest in non-otaku stuff you know, sheesh. Anything kawaii/kewl is good enough for me.

The convention will be at the Suntec Convention Centre, from the 27th to 29th of June (today, tomorrow and the day after), though the 27th is reserved for VIPs, the media and whatnot. Lucky buggers. -_-

Anyhoo, I’m also excited since there’ll be freebies, though I think we visitors will have to go through something in order to ‘qualify’, since ‘stamps’ are mentioned. Well, I don’t mind the quest, as long as I get my epic loot.

Oh, and here’s a little comic panel, courtesy of Bounce Back To Life, though I’ll remove it if the artist asks. I find his comic strips/panels very entertaining, since they’re ‘uniquely Singaporean’, and the art quality is quite good. Or is that ‘quite good sia‘?

And if you didn’t figure it out, you can check out the Singapore Toy & Comic Convention by clicking on the main image of this post above.

Oh, and the movie was nice. Not epic, but not bad either. I didn’t expect it to be so…sexual-oriented though, but I guess the people in charge of the ratings are a bit more lax now. Either that or I haven’t seen an NC16 before that.

Well, back to the assignment crunch then. When the crunch is over, expect to see more interesting posts, especially about a certain Vocaloid. I have like an entire chain of posts that can’t start without that.