Singapore Toy and Comic Convention
Look at her left hand :P
I dropped by the inaugural Singapore Toy and Comic Convention today to see the CosCon cosplay competition. As expected, the number of cosplayers who turned up was significantly smaller than those of dedicated cosplay events in Singapore, such as Cosfest and EOY.
I was planning to give this event a pass because I could tell that cosplay was going to be a really tiny afterthought, and the event itself was targeted more at general nerds and toy collectors, as opposed to hardcore otaku who have crossed the line of no return, devoid of souls and cash, loyal minions of the queen of the underworld.
You could tell that this was not my comfort zone by the high Star Wars presence in the hall, so strong it was that those attuned to the way of the Force could walk to Suntec City from City Hall station blindfolded, guided only by the scent of fellow Lucas worshippers.
Long, long ago, George Lucas was in love
Awesome cosplay by a really thin smurf
The Guest of Honour, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew
I loved Star Wars as much as the next geek, but it’s just not my cup of tea when it comes to life-destroying addictions. Considering the fact that anime and cosplay were probably not going to be a prominent part of the programme, it was my original intention to stay at home today.
Luckily, my common sense was temporarily overpowered by a series of coincidences that can only be described as Haruhi’s divine will, and, against my better judgement, I decided to show up at the convention hall with my Canon 400D, the premier lowest-tier DSLR for cheapskates who want to appear professional in the eyes of the ignorant regular folks with their child-size compacts.
This photo was taken from a restricted area
I say luckily because despite being a general waste of my precious afternoon which I could have otherwise spent watching the original Macross (Lin Mingmei ^^), there was one cosplay which made it worth my effort. (I’ll leave you guessing which one…)
Alright, enough nonsense. On to the photos.
It offends my sensibility that FFVII characters can fly with one wing
The vibrating cat of doom!
Okay fine it was the Hatsune Miku cosplayer. Surprisingly, she came in first place in the competition. I say surprisingly not because her cosplay wasn’t the best, but because the contest was determined by voting and I didn’t think Miku’s character would be popular enough (compared to Naruto and Crisis Core).
It’s quite cool cause the lights on her arm bands actually light up. Also, the Miku cosplayer told me that she reads my blog and actually discovered the wonders of Vocaloids on this very site. It brought a tear to my eye knowing that I helped to change the world for the better. Heh. (Wonder what she’ll be cosplaying as for Cosfest next week.)
Sadly, the organizers placed the cosplayers in the most poorly-lit corner of the entire hall, which, along with the fact that I had to depend on 400D’s internal flash, meant that I managed to produce some of the crappiest cosplay photos I’ve ever taken since my pre-DSLR days. I really ought to cough up 500 bucks for a Speedlite some day.
And on a closing note…
Everyone’s favourite anime company
June 29th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
You should have taken a photo of the word “Passion” at the Odex booth too.
June 29th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Hmm, I spot D-gray man, Vampire Knights, Bleach and FF. O_o
June 29th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
I see myself looking at the DDR booth in one of the photos. Why couldn’t I have turned around and looked at the mighty DM? どうして?…(btw i am the one with the blue shirt and fugly bag strap).
I have a few “comments”. I say comments and not complaints because it is the first one here, ya they should have done a market survey yadda yadda. I know. I should just close one eye. Anyway, comments:
1) Too many Gundams.
2) Bandai screwed itself by not bringing Haruhi.
3) Redemption queues were pathetic.
4) The only traces i saw of SNS were an Odex Dvd. Was not worth burning.
5) No traces of Garfield, Baby Blues, Foxtrot or Stone Soup. Comics my foot.
6) The place reeked of Narutards.
7) MaskedRiderHidekiWTF.
KK. enough.
But the Miku was nice. She should have done the leek dance though.
June 29th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Man, your coverage post sure came up early. Perhaps you didn’t notice, but I almost bumped into you back there to the right of the stage while you were photographing Miku. Saw you up there when you were taking the aerial shot; you sure ‘acted’ professional with that DSLR. You sure didn’t look happy to be there.
June 29th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
isn’t it ‘Lin Minmei’ (romaji) or “Lynn Minmay” (eng ver according to animenewsnetwork) instead of “Lin Meiling” o.O??
June 29th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Looks like I won’t be attending this tomorrow.
June 29th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
Anon:
Indeed. Sorry I was distracted and typoed “ming”. It has been fixed.
SnooSnoo:
Today was the last day, so yeah. Also, is your name a Futurama reference?
June 29th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
It’s 鈴明美。<3<3<3
The dark Totoro-like thing is cute.
June 29th, 2008 at 11:39 pm
Yeah, it is. Oh shit, I thought it was Saturday today. >__>
June 30th, 2008 at 12:14 am
Wow! Vampire Knight’s Yuuki and Zero! But I thought Zero is the one who supposed to hold the gun?
Thanks for the great photos!
June 30th, 2008 at 12:39 am
Your photos are still way better than mine. Nice that the Miku cosplayer actually first discovered Vocaloid through your blog. And lol @ Star Wars and Lucas references.
Also, why Xedo? Most of us felt like burning the booth down.
June 30th, 2008 at 12:53 am
Too much mainstream, no hardcore otaku stuff indeed.
June 30th, 2008 at 2:45 am
Long-time lurker uncloaking here, DM.
Met you along with Panther and Double today, a pleasure to finally meet you in the flesh. ^^
Also, everyone is getting name cards now. lol.
June 30th, 2008 at 3:54 am
Looks like you had fun. Also, the Miku cosplayer looks kinda hot.
June 30th, 2008 at 5:30 am
saw a few interesting cosplay guys gals.where do they get those red bright contact lenses!
June 30th, 2008 at 5:45 am
Man I love the Odex booth, it is a pity Darth Vader didn’t summon his Imperial Dreadnought to blast it into shreds.
I didn’t see xysing there. Did you?
June 30th, 2008 at 7:13 am
Those are very nice shots you’ve got there DM.. The bad thing thing about the cosplay photoshoot is that they located it beside the stage area which wasn’t brightly lit..
Well, at least we get to experience something when we were at the convention.. ^^
June 30th, 2008 at 8:13 am
Hrm…what cosplay is that right before the last Miku shot, it’s really bugging me :(
June 30th, 2008 at 9:47 am
I initially wanted to attend when I heard that there’s some sort of ‘Autography Session’ and hoped that there’ll be a Seiyuu appearance of sorts.
Unfortunately there was none.
To think I was hoping that Tamura Yukari would come so that I can get her Photobook signed~ :(
June 30th, 2008 at 11:09 am
@ZeroBlade:
It was supposed to be mainstream.
Otakus totally ruined the general convention.
June 30th, 2008 at 11:28 am
@Keiichi, its one of the Vampire Knight’s night class students. Not sure which one though.
June 30th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
those gunpla modles look nice.
June 30th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
gah… wish i could go… i hate exams… =(
June 30th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
I LOVE IT! Went for both days… Thnx For the Pictures… I did not have much time for Photo Taking… I Saw Suzumiya Haruhi Cosplay! So Happy! There were lots of D.Gray-man… Love them too… lolx… haha … Our “favourite” anime company hahahaaha
June 30th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Eh? There’s another Cosplay Event nxt Wk? Where Wad Time I want go! Can Tell me when Juz Post it here I will chk back within this week
June 30th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
http://www.cosfest.com/
June 30th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
I was planning on going this for a very long time. But am sick. Just my luck.
June 30th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
I went there but missed all the cosplaying. On the bright side I picked up cheap goods.
June 30th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Stop shooting on auto, lolz.
June 30th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
Crossbone Gundam, Gundam F91, DOM, Zaku, Musha Gundam, Amuro Ray Custom Zeta, God Gundam, RX 78 and ZZ Gundam wow…
The workmanship for all those Gundam are awesome… I wish I have half of those skills T.T
June 30th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
It’s not on auto.
July 1st, 2008 at 3:20 pm
odd…was there ANY Macross stuff there (since there WAS a Bandai section there…)?
btw, the cosplay photos aren’t that bad.
July 1st, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Wait…..
I dun remember seeing odex there?
July 2nd, 2008 at 8:18 pm
hey cool photos man, you should try out for their photography competition
http://www.sgtoyandcomiccon.com/photography_comp.html
July 2nd, 2008 at 10:09 pm
hopefully.. hopefully! we get to see loads of cos players in this coming weekend’s cosfest!!!!!!
speedlites are expensive. damn. im planning to get 1 too
July 4th, 2008 at 2:09 am
Well don’t forget there’s a booth that sells their VCDs and DVDs boxset for $10-$20, giving away posters for spending $20 and above. Well I guess they stayed low profile for now..
July 6th, 2008 at 4:07 am
So I guess you want us to ask you this… Why are you giving out business cards? =P
The restricted area photo links to the wrong picture BTW.
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Sign of Odex’s Return? « aNiMe LoVeJuly 21st, 2008 at 7:45 pm
[...] and Piracy, Uncategorized After their website got hacked, Odex disappeared without a trace, only recently sighted at the recent Singapore Toy and Comic Convention( not very obvious, from what I heard…..). Now news are that they are teaming up with [...]
July 23rd, 2008 at 6:09 pm
hi i’m a manga-fan of sakura if you can send me an image or anything please (^^)
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