Collecticon 2011 was held last weekend at the Robinson's Midtown Mall and some buddies and I decided to trek to Ermita, Manila to check it out during the first day last Saturday. Day 1 wasn't as packed with people as I expected. The selling area was crowded, but still navigable. There were booths selling comics for as low as 10 pesos and graphic novels at 50% off. Obviously most of the stuff being sold there were toys. There were lot of boxed and loose Marvel and DC toys, as well as Gundams and other Japanese anime toys.I also saw a booth that sold costumes and wigs; a dog tag booth and one that sold collectibles like Coca-Cola memorabilia.
Some booths sold vintage items. Spotted all in one booth were the three vintage Transformers figures below. The seller also had vintage trading cards for sale. Most were single sports cards from what I gathered, but he also had unopened boxes.
But even without huge throng of people, there was still an incidence of stolen merchandise. I'm not sure how many incidences there were, but I heard one lady from a stall saying four items were stolen from their table, even though there were security going around the venue. I know incidents like that happen all the time at conventions, but it's still shocking and disheartening to hear.
Some local toy groups exhibited toys from their collections as well. The area around the stage was used for glass cabinets and tables to house those. Some of the figures displayed in glass cabinets were action figures from the Marvel Legends and Marvel Universe lines; cars; anime figures, 12-inch Hot Toys figures, as well as some custom toy designs like Captain Barbell below. Another custom exhibit at Collecticon was the Custom Gundam Exhibit, where there was some on-the-spot activity happening at the same time.
I can't remember how many dioramas were there but I do remember those that were almost behind the stage area, near the stairs. There was this cool diorama of the X-men's "Danger Room" showcasing Marvel Universe figures in a classic combat training session .
Across from this diorama was a table set up with three dioramas. on the left side was a diorama with several Alien Figures. On the far right is a church tower with Assassin's Creed Altair standing on the roof ledge, with a Spawn figure in front sitting on what I'm guessing is a thrown. In between these two dioramas is my favorite: the God of War diorama featuring four different Kratos figures.
There were two photo exhibits at the back of the stage. One was an exhibit of toy photographer Bleau Aquino's work; and the other was the Collecticon Toy Photo Contest. Entries were divided between "Edited" and "Non-Edited" categories. I was surprised to see that there weren't as many entries this year as compared to some incarnations of the con where there were a lot. But it's just the first day anyway. Maybe more were submitted the next day.
I initially wanted to join, but couldn't decide on what to submit, so I opted not to join this year. Still, I saw some really nice work among the entries. I hope my fave entry won!
With all this going-around-the-venue, you're probably wondering if we bought anything. My buddies bought some Lego (wherein some fondling was involved); I on the other hand went home with a DC Direct Identity Crisis Zatanna. No comics for me this con though, since none of the stuff on my list were available. Something I'm actually very thankful for because I didn't bring a lot of cash with me hahahaha. I do kinda regret not picking up those C.I. Boys though. Oh well. There's always next year!
A big thank you to Drew for letting me use some of your photos!
