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Just because it's comic con doesn't mean that you should dress funny--no wait, it does. =___=
I missed the first day of the 1st annual Singapore Toy & Comic Convention held in Suntec yesterday. Then again, I didn't wanna go to Singapore's first ever toy & comic convention at first. For all teh l0ze sg can be, I decided to go check it out after conflicting comments by dw who complained about how it failz and zaidbot who beamed about how he got a nice cool gundam robot for $30 less than the usual selling price.
So at zaid's recommendation, I woke up bright and early today and got there at 10.30 to start queuing for the Be@rBrick freebie thingie. There's already a hell lot of people there--which makes me wonder if they really did camp overnight. Saw a whole bunch of *pause* interesting people while queuing--like this girl with her lightning quick reflexes (she was playing Tetris on Nintendo DS and all I could see was bricks rotating in a fraction of a second. So win!) and this other girl who came to join her boyfriend in the queue wearing 4 inch high stilettos and uber short shorts and how every guy in the vicinity turned their heads following her every lengthy leg movements. Gee...
Also in the queue, I realized that I cannot be considered a hardcore fan/otaku/geek yet. I do not possess neither a PSP nor a DS. I don't even own a GameBoy--those are my bro's. *le gasps* Shocking! I know!! XD Everyone else in the queue had one or both of them portable gaming console.
So luckily, although there were a lot of people, there were more freebie bears so we (zaid joined me about half an hour later after I got to Suntec) got one each and we're off to get our redemption passport book.
Apparently, we needa go round the hall and get chops from different booths and we can get more free stuffs. Redemption time is 2pm and 5pm fyi. Zaid missed out on the Bandai giveaway yesterday coz he got there too late and there's no more passport for the day. Poor guy didn't get his free robot.
We got registered, we got our passport and we're off to tour the facility! And collect chops of course. I did the bumblebee and buzzed around snapping random stuffs that catches my eye while zaid dragged me to each booth to get our passport chopped.
For those who are interested, here's the link to the pictures I took today
Pardon the lousy shots. I shot them :P
Lunch was a series of detours. We were debating over McD or BK and since I had McD yesterday and he had BK yesterday, we decided to go Millenia Walk for Long John Silver but when we got there, we don't see any LJS. The directory don't have LJS. So we went back and ate at McD even though I've had McD yesterday coz there's a coupon for McD that came with the comic con guide. Cheapskates that we are, that's to be expected. =3
After we got back from lunch, we queued for the 2pm redemption and boy was the queue long. It went from inside the hall to way way way outside the hall, almost stretching across the entire 6th level. We needa get another chop and a number from the officials so that we are authenticated like Windows XP and we don't queue in vain. Good thing was zaid was already in the queue so all I had to do was get the chop and number and waited for less than 30mins before I got my stuffs. 2 decks of magic-the gathering card (prolly some lowly starter deck) and a magazine from chuangyi.
After the redemption, there's some cosplay competition on stage so we stayed and watched. The contestants' costumes were okay (except for the cross-dressing Cloud Strife. Nice sword but a shiny purple dress?? Seriously!) but when it came to the Q&A and talent showcase part, I literally star-eyeroll-star. No really. I literally said star-eyeroll-star out loud. That's how bad some of them are. I get that they are staying in-character but some of the answers and the way they answer is just--dare I say it, retarded. Pretty sure some of you guys received my text message about how my fandom was ass-raped by them fanboys and fangirls in costumes. I groan and wept tear of shame at the type of anime/manga/gaming fans my country produces. I didn't take any photos coz I was too far from the stage--and also coz I don't wanna subject my eyes to such torture again. The only thing that salvaged that event was the afro dude and his funky dance. Wish he put on some Hammer!pants (aka MC Hammer's parachute pants, for the uninitiated). That would really put him right at the top IMO.
Walked around some more and went to queue for the 5pm redemption at 3.30pm. There's already like 100+ people queuing already. O_O I couldn't find the end of the queue at first coz everyone was just standing around in a line against the glass railing outside and it took me 3 tries to find the right one. Read a lil while waiting and lo! I'm not the only one not playing a psp or a ds. Someone else was reading too.
I realized I still can't be considered a fan/otaku/geek yet even though I partake in fannish/otaku-poi/geeky activities such as joining the long queue for anime/manga stuffs much earlier than other non-fan/otaku/geek people. Although I'm not the only one not playing a handheld game console, I was however the only one to read an English book. A novel about the British navy, Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin called The Fortune of War. A period piece set in the early 19th century. A thick book that had nothing to do with anime nor manga. All others who was reading had in their hands either a comic, a manga, the comic con guide or the chuangyi freebie.
One booth that I kept returning to was the Wii booth. I was drawn to Guitar Hero III on Wii. *starry-eyed* The controller is really shaped like a guitar! I kept going back to that booth and stood there for an extended period of time while fingering the imaginary buttons on my imaginary guitar as someone else played it. Really tempted to try it out but as zaid'd pointed out, my hand-eye coordination suck. That's why I play turn-based RPGs. Lol... Don't think I can handle letting so many people see me being so lousy. I'll just hafta save enough money to get one and practice at home--with only my bro to laugh at me. Haha...
Speaking of bro, I was just talking to him a few weeks back about a pick-and-guitar-neck-combo Wii controllers. Coz the guitar-shaped controller now is small. Tiny. Puny. Fit only for small children, fuzzy animals and me. Haha... I've seen grown men reduced to a hunched little ball as they try to work their magic fingers on the tiny neck and body. So my proposal then was to make a pick that picks up on the player's strumming motion and a guitar neck with the buttons on them to press. That way, it doesn't matter how small the actual guitar is coz the neck is not connected to anything (maybe except for a sling around your own neck) and the body is replaced by a guitar pick.
((...Actually, I just wanna be able to say "With this pick, I shall rule the guitar/music/entire/Wii world"... Lol!))
FINALLY!!! The real point of this post.
Another thing I saw at comic con is the amount of people wearing strange and downright godawful stuffs. And I'm not saying the cosplayers coz they put in tons of effort into their costumes and they are *supposed* to look odd. I saw a guy with 2 strips of purple hair extensions. I saw a girl with fishnet stockings that are torn in the worst possible way in at least 4 places. I saw a girl wear red knee-length socks which is the same shade as her red shiny ballet flats. I saw a guy try to pull off goth but ended up looking like a wannabe. I saw a girl wear fuzzy hand warmer/sock/fingerless glove things--like the one I have, only with less metal and more fur.
People, please. Just because this is comic con doesn't mean that you should throw your good fashion sense out the windows. Sometimes, some things can only be pulled off by some people. And more is *not* better, no matter what anyone says.
I sometimes wish I had a high speed camera or at least a camera with a faster shutter speed to capture all these omfgwtfbbq moments in life. Or a harddisk in my brain like the people of GITS do. That way I can just download what I see and show it to you guys.
All in all, the 1st annual Singapore Toy & Comic Convention wasn't really that bad. Guess the theory of not expecting too much and you won't be disappointed still holds true. :P
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