The Malaysia International Toy fair 2010

Where shall I begin. Its already Tuesday and I am still suffering from it. Not from the exhaustion but the short-circuiting of my brain from all the ideas and feedbacks coming from Pol, Swee Ho, James, Bruce, etc since yesterday. Those are the wonderful ideas which in theory, should keep my busy for a year before the second MITF, that is.

The Malaysian Toys International Fair as I was being informed, was the first Toy Fair in Malaysia (which succeeded). When I mean successed, it was based on my own observations:

1) On the frist day, even at 1930, people are still queuing up to PAY RM3.00 to get into the Fair eventhough 30%have closed for the day.

2) The crowds are never ending, even during Lunch and Dinner time.

Anyway, since there are a lot of things happening, I will comment on the photos la.

Booths

It is very surprising that there were a lot of participants and some even came from Indonesia. But what I did not know was that some of the designer toys actually were from Malaysia! Indirectly, the booths were divided into a few catergories; PC Games, Toy Shops, Designers, Books, and Fan exhibitions.

The Predator weapon with its very

nice white LEDs pulsating outwards

(http://www.Shioktoys.com)

Dweey designer toys and Liselle paintings

(http://www.dweey.com)

I like this one very much

You can pretty much design your own Dweey

Lisa Lee, the Malaysian creator of Liselle.

Forgot to buy some stuff from her.

I love the T-shirts and they're so nice, its a shame

to actually wear them. Again, I forgot to buy them

and I think, the good ones were gone.

(http://www.shabowlbrothers.com)

Another designed toy, but this one reminds me

of Dr. Slump.

(http://www.bigbrosworkshop.com)

Card games in progress. Not interested. 'nuff said.

Steven Choe of ToyGarden/ToyWizard

(http://www.toygarden.net or http://www.toywizard.net)

Old Master Q

The infamous Batman from Hot Toys with the

'oil' oozing out from its midriff

Blythe dolls

I don't know what came over me but I am

starting to find the ones with the doggy

very cute. Years ago, just their very

image gets on my nerves.

Macross Fans of Malaysia. Did you see anything wrong?

Yep, they snuck in a very beautiful AV-98 Patlabor!

With all the models, I am not really interested

with much except for this Elinseeker,

And this model.

The new ones are not very attractive except that

they look more aerodynamic. To me, its like an

Ally McBeal model.

And most of them looked as if they have a lot of

add-ons to make it look tough. Still this one did

catch my eye.

Transformers fans of Malaysis

(http://www.transmy/com)

I want the Blaster, which is the red/yellow

boombox eventhough the transparent

Optimus prime was next to it.

Wow. A clear Alternator Transformer. Too bad

I did not see any Headmaster or Powermasters

Darren Chan, creator of Doodolls being

interviewed.

Gempak Starz artists drawing on a canvas which

will be sold later.

(Anticlockwise L-R: Keith, Jo, Little and Kaoru)

Of Mascots, Cosplayers and 501st

Nowadays, shows like these without a mascot or a costumed character is like eating rive without the gravy, or a banana without the durian......... (eh?).

Doodolls mascot being lead around the halls, much

to the delight of fans and young kids.

I am not sure what this is, but the costume

is definitely very innovative.

Cosplayers (of what?)

A character from Blade, I think

Guys from Halo

He did this from pepakura and strenghtened

the paper with resin and fiberglass. You can

see from the costume, its a lot of work and

he is very talented. I wanted to talk to him

about improving his helmet LEDs but I was

rushed for time as I was helping with costumes

On the left, is a boy who looks like a girl while on the

right is a girl who dresed up as a boy (Kadajj from

final fantasy VII:Advent Children)

Not sure what it was, but I would guess

its Hakune Miku or something at the

Animax booth.

Trust me, I was speechless too but he

was very accomodating and patient.

Star Wars Lightsaber fight courtesy of Outpost Toys

Prize giving for the winners of Droid hunt

with Darth Vader picking the winners.

My part in the Grand scheme of things

So, what was I doing there for two whole days? I was there because of my two buddies, Kal and nexus. Kal was there because he is Boba Fett for 501st and nexus was there because he did the costume for the Warhammer 40K Sisters of battle. I was there because I did the electronics for both of them. And I also ended up helping the 501st in suiting up and off on their costumes. So, now, I know how to suit up a Stormtrooper, a Sandtrooper and a Boba Fett.

Me with the Sisters of Battle Bolter

A Stormtrooper getting ready all by himself

Behind the scenes: Sister of Battle getting ready

This is what I have been doing. Helping the 501st

getting in and out of their costumes. This way, it

would reduce the suit up time. You won't care

about this until you really need to 'go'.

We have to think fast and always on our feet as

sometimes, we need to repair or reinforce the

costumes within a very short time and very

little tools. We improvise ala MacGyver, la.

And sometimes, you really have to stretch things and

tell them to "suck it in' as well. With no battles, troops

can get fat very fast. This is very evident ever since

the Empire lost to the rebels.

Everyone was fighting for the mirror before

going out there. Nothing to do with vanity

but the effort to make the costume look

just 'right'.

My electronics. On the front is the Boba Fett chest

display on prototype board as the vendor went on

holiday. Background is th Bolter's ammo counter

I was so pleased to see it working when Kal put it

into his armour and switched it on, eventhough it

was not accurate because I only had three days to

come up with it after learning about the PCB problem

And seeing the visitor's smiling or picking up

their jaws from the floor was really worth it

And I was made Honorary member of the 501st!

Sorry. I wanted to show you who they are but as

I did not have the clearance from the 501st, it'll

have to be in 'Ski mask' mode for now.

So, after going through the first MITF, and talking to a lot of members, plus nexus and Bruce, i think I am going to do something for next year's MITF but right now, I have to get ready for SF in December. I also find that i really enjoy being 'behind the scenes' guy instead of being the guy in a costume. But who knows?

As nexus said, "Adeptus Mechanicus". Yes, I am thinking very hard on this one.

The problem with tattoos

While i was busy with work, the girls were impatient with their need for tattoos and so, their teacher taught them how to make one, with those colour pencils which can become water colours once you add water. Here, Kristine is going to show you how to do it.........

Take a bowl of water and the choice of colour

Dip the pencil into the water and then while the lead

is wet, proceed to paint it on your hands.

Voila! A tattoo!

Also, this is Krsitine's way of reminding us about the tattoo. Later in the week, I got some for them but while it said it is temporary tattoos, it lasted for days........

Why Stormtroopers do not sit...

Well, you have seen the Star Wars trilogy, right? When you see the Stormtroopers, they are either always standing, getting shot or lying down. Apart from saddling onto a dewback, you have never ever seen them sitting, right?

There is a very good reason and so, Kalvintaka is now demonstrating why Stormtroopers do not sit:

If they did, they will suffer from repetitive

prostrate injury or just slid off the chair.

(Actually, it will run the risk of cracking the armour)

Malaysia Toy Fair @ Mid-Valley

OK. I'm tired, standing all day. And I am due to go back before 10 today, so here is a brief post on the Malaysian Toy Fair at Mid-Valley from 24th to 25th July, 2010. Entrance is RM3.00 and for its kind, being the first, the attendance is quite encouraging.

I said encouraging because its packed with a lot of people and even after seven in the evening, people are still buying tickets to come in even though about 30% of the booths are closed for the day, including the ones I was helping.

So, please do come and support the Fair for if it goes on next year, I will promise to do more electronics stuff. This is also a last minute for me, I only get to know about this about a few weeks ago, more or less from Kal and nexus. This explains my 'busy-ness' in getting stuff ready and trying to divert crucial (lunch) funds for them.

We smuggled weapons of mass awesomeness.....

We kidnapped girls from other booths

And we posed a lot.