This year, the 3 main international pop-culture favourite booths - Marvel, DC and Hot Toys - looked very very photogenic.
Just look at the DC and Marvel booths!
Red Dot Diva approved of the more open-concept, sexy, vibrant DC and Marvel booths at the convention this year. She saw many folks taking pics in front of the superhero panels at both booths, including this bunch of handsome young men on Day 1!
And of course, Red Dot Diva couldn't help perving her choice superheroes for herself *g*. She knows they wouldn't mind. heh.
Just around the corner from the DC and Marvel booths was Hot Toys. Their booth was a little cramped in the spaces around its many display showcases but it was definitely the most popular with generic and toy photographers alike. Crowds of people were always milling around the beautiful displays snapping pics of their favourite pop-culture characters cast in figurine form.
The dioramas displayed of Batman and Ironman were particularly detailed and awesome.
However, Red Dot Diva's personal favourite out of the lot is this one:
Christopher Reeve's Superman lookalike FTW!
Having seen Sideshow Toys' booth at SDCC 2010, Red Dot Diva couldn't help but feel that the Hot Toys' booth was much smaller and less dazzling by comparison. But it was still an impressive, very colourful, and eye-catching display for a small convention in the South-East Asian region. Two thumbs up for that!
Like many movie fans, Red Dot Diva was also attracted to the very striking display booth by local movie collectibles company, Popcorn Pop. Popcorn Pop's mainly primary-coloured booth featured rare art prints/ posters/ banners and a special superheroes gallery that included a nostalgic set of Superman movie posters through the years, and those that relate to the Batman movies.
Other than these four booths, there were a few other booths which were more functional but yet commanded eyeballs. Tokidoki's booth had the same long background filled with Simone Legno's trademark ghetto-kawaii drawings. And Simply Toys, who brought in the exclusive Funko 2011 exclusives and Kotobukiya special buys, had a simple and fun booth filled with cute bobbleheads and plushies for one to browse and buy.
Too bad, she found "The Walking Dead" plush dolls a little too expensive. Else she might have lured a couple of brains-hungry zombie-dollies to accompany her home.
Instead of a main stage held at the towards the back and centre of the hall, the staging and Walk of Fame area this year were panelled off towards the left. Even though it was probably a good idea to have these event areas away from the booths, Red Dot Diva found the stage a little too big for the panels, where often times, there were only two persons on stage.
She does acknowledge that the positioning of this year's staging did resolve most of the background noise problems faced last year though, which was a positive change.
Overall, Red Dot Diva felt that the mix of booths this year was an improvement over last year's. There was a better ratio of toys, games (but still not as many), art folks and pop-culture booths which catered to the tastes of different kind of attendees.
She is totally aware of ground sentiments about the lack of the comics element before the convention began. However, being at STGCC for two whole days, she did not sense that there wasn't enough comics stuff despite there being fewer "international" comics guests.
Kinokuniya had a prominent booth filled with non-Marvel and non-DC comics for other kinds of graphic novel fans to enjoy. The Walking Dead booth showcased their own series' graphic novels created by writer Robert Kirkman and artist Tony Moore. And the newish nerd hangout of the times, Harris Planerds, was having a 20% discount on all books. In addition, Planerds also had local artists sit in for signings on both days and their booth was filled with tons of comics.
Not to mention, Elseworld's booth which practically hosted almost all of Marvel's Filipino artists - Mico Suayan, Stephen Segovia and Carlo Pagulayan plus local chibi artist Mashi aka Wendy Chew. On both days, all the artists were hard at work - sketching, signing items and happily interacting with fans.
Red Dot Diva said that she absolutely enjoyed herself at STGCC 2011. As in anything that matters, there is always room for improvement, but she has a feeling that this year's buzz (without the "big names") may draw more international folks to be interested in the show for next year.
Just one request to Reed Singapore for STGCC 2012.
Pleasssssssseeeeee invite the DeadZebra (aka Andrew Bell) back next year! Having met the man himself, Red Dot Diva thinks he deserves to have a bigger booth which he could fill with lots more designer toys and plushies for toy lovers/ collectors to enjoy!
- More blogs on STGCC and special guest interviews coming soon! -
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