Asia’s biggest and longest-running convention for collectibles, toys, anime, comics, cosplay, gaming and anything and everything in between thrilled fans once again last June 28-30, 2019 at the SMX Convention Center Manila at TOYCON Pop Life FanXperience 2019. The Philippine Toys, Hobbies and Collectibles Convention, better known as TOYCON PH, celebrated 18 years of serving pop culture enjoyment to its fans both local and international.
With a new logo and tagline, TOYCON PH presented a fresh visual identity to cater to the growing millennial crowd and also attract visitors from all over the world with a global perspective to promote the Philippines as the leading pop culture playground in Asia which showcases Filipino creativity, innovativeness and talent through toys, games, entertainment and digital content.
TOYCON PH is where Asia comes to play, and it is now an International event that has gone all out to impress visitors from around the world. A bigger, better and grander line-up of activities gave its enthusiastic followers and the casual fans more to enjoy. With 17 years of excellent experience in making the Philippine pop culture scene the most dynamic and the most fan-centric experience in the region, Toy Con started the pop culture revolution in the country and has captured the hearts of pop culture enthusiasts in the whole Asia Pacific region.
On its 18th year, Toy Con had been adding value and uniting the different toy and pop culture communities in the Philippines as it featured exclusive toys and merchandise. One of the things to anticipate this year are the exclusive toys, collectibles and merchandise that will come out of the event, as well as the big toy brands and toy designers. Brands like Lego, Funko, Bandai, Good Smile, Hot Toys and XM Studios, along with internationally renowned toy designers: Ron English (the legendary godfather of street art), Quiccs, Wetworks, Anatoy, Yoii, Hariken, Creon Chkn Head, Happy Garaje, Jessica Emmett, Daniel Yu, Fanny Kao, Mumbot, Rusho Toys, Jwon, Kaze Studio, Messymaru, Mupa, Non World, Siam Ruf, Tangent and Too Natthapong were featured at the event with their distinct brand of collectibles. In addition, the much-anticipated Jollibee Flocked variant Funko Pop was also exclusively distributed by the Funko Funatics Philippines during the event.
Toy Con 2019 got to have international guests make a huge impact as two prominent actors from the hit AMC series The Walking Dead wowed their Filipino fans. Michael Cudlitz, who played Sergeant Abraham Ford, and Steven Ogg, who played Simon, made quite the impression on the big stage as well as had some photos with some very lucky fans.
When it came to music, as lot of fresh new talent got to hit the stage of TOYCON with band performances and idol groups to the delight of the crowd. Up and coming bands Souldrift, Lila, The Lock Pickers, The Glass O, Project:Materia, Kanjiru, Asterysk, Lunar Rhythm, as well as fan favorites Aidoru Sozai, CH4U, and Pastel∞Mix got to perform at the TOYCON stage for its Music Festival.
TOYCON is also the country’s undisputed Comic Con with top-caliber comic book artists gracing the event, Berlin Manalaysay, Ed Tadeo, Heubert Khan Michael, Miguel Mercado, Harvey Tolibao, Pol Medina Jr, Raymund Bermudez, Raymund Lee, and Steve Gan. ABS-CBN also launched the Ravelo Komiks Universe, the first-ever unified comics universe in the Philippines.
Exhibits from upcoming epic movies made the TOYCON scene more engaging with Spider-Man: Far from Home, and Warner Brothers’ line-up of movie icons from the horror genre, the Annabelle doll from Warner Brothers upcoming Anabelle Comes Home, Pennywise the Clown from IT: Chapter 2 and Chucky from Reality Pictures’ 2019 adaptation of Child’s Play.
TOYCON also got to unveil the biggest Batman statue in Asia, the 22-foot tall Imperial Palace Batman which is a likeness of the Dark Knight never seen before. Celebrating the 80th Anniversary of Batman, DC Collectibles has announced a collaboration with Pop Life Global and China’s Imperial Palace for a special series of figures featuring DC Comics characters in costumes themed after ancient Chinese warriors and soldier armors. This Batman statue definitely was one for the history books!
TOYCON 2019 also gave a big boost to the local cosplay scene this year as it hosted this year’s World Cosplay Summit Philippines (WCSPH) National Finals, with Japanese Cosplayer Reika and WCSPH Alumni Ming Miho and 2018 Philippine Representative Team Sekai (Sergio Sta. Ana and Kai Raito) headlining and judging the contest. Five cosplay pairs selected from parts of the country competed for the right to represent the Philippines at the 2019 World Cosplay Summit in Japan.
Aside from these, TOYCON 2019 hosted numerous other activities such as a Mobile Legends gaming Tournament, The TOYCON Cosplay KO Competition and the Pinoy Pop Culture Icon Award.
TOYCON’s line-up of vendors and exhibitors got even bigger and better this year with more than 300 merchandise booths of toys, pop culture memorabilia, apparel, collectibles and more, with more international brands in attendance.
TOYCON PH and Pop Life FanXperience got to prove that it was definitely the leading pop culture playground in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia with the tremendous amount of attractions and content that had something special for just about everyone. We definitely look forward to what more they will have in store for next year’s edition.
Many thanks to our Correspondent Lora and Lorraine and photographer Jake for helping us out with our coverage. Thank you for dropping by, and do visit us again for more features here at arkadymac.com.
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