The
Philippine Toys, Hobbies and Collectibles Convention, better known as TOYCON PH, is celebrating 18 years of serving pop culture enjoyment
to its fans both local and international. It is, simply put, the
longest-running and premiere pop culture event in Asia.
Early this year, TOYCON PH presented a fresh
visual identity, through a new logo, 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, that
showcases Filipino creativity, innovativeness and talent through toys, games,
entertainment and digital content.
TOYCON
PH – Where Asia Comes to Play!
TOYCON’s new tagline indicates the direction
of where it is going.
It is now an International event that will
flex its muscle to further increase the international visitors that are coming.
This all means that a better and grander
line-up of activities is expected for this year. These activities are
guaranteed to give its enthusiastic followers and the casual fans more to enjoy
in TOYCON.
TOYCON has had 17 years of excellent
experience in making the Philippine pop culture scene the most dynamic and the
most fan-centric experience in the region!
It started the pop culture revolution in the country. And now it is
capturing the heart of pop culture enthusiasts in the whole Asia Pacific
region.
This year is the 18th year of the event, and
through the years it has been adding value and uniting the different toy and
pop culture communities in the Philippines.
TOYCON’s
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.
This year, there will be more exclusive toys
that will come out in TOYCON. And if you are a toy collector, it will be one of
those events that you can call heaven sent.
Headlining as the marquee TOYCON exclusive is
the Zeta Manila Killa PH Colorway designed and created by Quiccs Maiquez, who
was awarded Toy Designer of the Year and Toy of the Year in the recently held
Designer Toy Awards in New York City.
In addition, the much-anticipated Jollibee
Flocked variant Funko Pop will also exclusively be distributed by the Funko
Funatics Philippines during the event this year. We also have Filipino-inspired toy exclusives
of Tiny Ghost by Bim Toy, Dino by Ziqi Toys and the first release of the Batman
Imperial Palace warrior vinyl toy by Mindstyle.
TOYCON’s
Toy Designer Line-up Gets Bigger
When there are exclusive toys, not far behind
are the big toy brands and toy designers. There will be more local and
international brands and toy designers that will grace this year’s event.
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 will line up the event with their distinct
brand of collectibles. These designers from all over the globe certainly get
the art toy enthusiasts excited in all the international toy shows and
certainly, art toy aficionados will get spoiled in this year’s event!
TOYCON’s
International Influencers and Celebrity Guests
The era of the digital influencers is here.
TOYCON, with our partner Pop Life Global, is giving the community a taste of
the future and beyond. First up are
influencers from the Pop Life’s Pro-Am Studios, which is in the business of
making movies out of their studio and post-production facilities in China. They
are slated to release five movies this year and next.
One highlight of this year’s FanXperience
event will be the Battle Dance Champions featured in the Pop Life produced
movie, No Dance, No Life. World-class
dance will take over the FanXperience stage featuring talents such as Former
Bboy of the Year: Bboy Morris, World of Dance 2019 Champions: The Kings, World
of Dance Team of the Year: Academy of Villains, and The Creator of the dance
style, Krumping, Tight Eyez.
The international artists are a staple of
TOYCON. Through our partner, Pop Life Global, we have had guests from Game of
Thrones, Pirates of the Caribbean, Power Rangers, Superman and X-Men, and other
great franchises.
This year two guests confirmed to arrive are
from the hit AMC series The Walking Dead. These are actors Michael Cudlitz, who
played Sergeant Abraham Ford, and Steven Ogg, who played Simon and also plays
Trevor in the hit video game Grand Theft Auto V.
TOYCON’s
Sound Arena
We love music, who doesn’t? This year, fresh
new talent will hit the stage of TOYCON with band performances and idol groups
joining the fray. This TOYCON, you will cheer your heart out, guaranteed!
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 will be performing at the
TOYCON stage for its Music Festival.
TOYCON’s
Comics and Gaming Exhibition!
TOYCON is also our country’s undisputed Comic
Con with top-caliber comic book artists gracing the event.
The line-up this year includes:
Berlin Manalaysay: Creator of the well-loved
cyborg, ‘Combatron’, one of the most well received characters in Funny Komics
in 1992.
Ed Tadeo: A prolific Filipino comic book
artist, colorist and inker for Marvel, DC, and Image Comics. Titles of his
works in coloring and inking include: Wolverine, Silver Surfer, High Roads and
District X.
Heubert Khan Michael: Former guidance councilor
turned legendary comic book artist. Judged by Neil Gaiman himself, Hubert won
3rd place in the Philippine Graphic Fiction Awards back in 2010 and has been
inking since then! Some of his awesome works include: Vampirella, Unstoppable,
and The Owl.
Miguel Mercado: Miguel is a Cosplayer and
Illustrator. Miguel has is known within the Comic Book community for his epic
cover art for Back to the Future (2015), Buffy The Vampire Slayer (2019) and
Over The Garden Wall (2017).
Harvey Tolibao: Harvey first got involved in
the comics industry in late 2006 when he penciled and inked the twelfth issue
of Dark Horse Comics' Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. He also did the
art for Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Psylocke, the Avengers and has also
done some work for Top Cow and for DC.
Pol Medina Jr: Pol is a Filipino cartoonist
best known for creating Pugad Baboy, a comic strip about a community of fatsos
and a dog named Polgas, highlighting domestic life and the characters’
commentary on relevant societal issues and pop culture. Pol is the 2018
recipient of the TOYCON Pinoy Pop Culture Icon Award.
Raymund Bermudez: Filipino Comic Book Artist,
Penciler and Cover Artist for DC Comics. Some of his notable works include:
Justice League, Pathfinders and Lex Luthor.
Raymund Lee: Professional Digital Comic Book
Colorist who is known for his painterly style and classic renditions of
superheroes.
And
finally, Steve Gan: One of the
most accomplished Chinese-Filipino Comic Book Artists to date. Best known for
co-creating the legendary comic book “Ang Panday” as well as Marvel’s
“Star-Lord” and “Skull the Slayer”.
Another exciting comics-related news is that
ABS-CBN will launch the Ravelo Komiks Universe in TOYCON 2019, the first ever
unified comics universe in the Philippines,
with a legacy display of new merchandise for
its prominent stable of heroes, Darna, Captain Barbell and Lastikman. Watch out for life-size statues of these
character on display!
Other
TOYCON 2019 Highlights
Exhibits from epic movies coming soon will
make the TOYCON scene more engaging. Headlined by movies from Sony Pictures,
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. Meet them up close, but don’t blink!
This year’s TOYCON will also feature a new
fun zone, the Play Hub!
This is where fans of comics and gaming will
find the young and upstart artists in the design, graphic and digital spheres
come together to exhibit their craft and talents! The Game Developers
Association of the Philippines (GDAP) will host TOYCON’s Gaming Conference,
while the Animation Council of the Philippines will showcase more than 50 short
films in the Theater Room.
TOYCON POPLIFE FANXPERIENCE will also be the
stage for the unveiling of the biggest Batman statue in Asia, the 22-foot tall
Imperial Palace Batman which is a likeness of the Dark Knight never seen before
until now. 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 is going to be one for the history books!
This year’s World Cosplay Summit Philippines
(WCSPH) National Finals will also be held at TOYCON 2019, with Japanese
Cosplayer Reika and WCSPH Alumni Ming Miho and 2018 Philippine Representative
Team Sekai (Sergio Sta. Ana and Kai Raito) headlining this activity. Five cosplay pairs selected from parts of the country will compete for
the right to represent the Philippines at the 2019 World Cosplay Summit in
Japan.
Aside from these, TOYCON 2019 will host a
number of activities such as a Mobile Legends gaming Tournament in partnership
with InFlux TV, The TOYCON Cosplay KO Competition and bestow the Pinoy Pop
Culture Icon Award, which honors the icons that made our Filipino pop culture heritage
truly distinct and long-lasting.
TOYCON’s line-up of vendors and exhibitors
also gets bigger and better every year with more than 300 merchandise booths of
toys, pop culture memorabilia, apparel, collectibles and more, with more
international brands coming to town.
TOYCON
Pop Life FanXperience 2019 – It’s a Whole New Playground!
TOYCON PH and Pop Life FanXperience is
proving indeed that it is the leading pop culture playground in the Philippines
and in Southeast Asia. There will be more sights to share for your various
channels and social media, engaging activities, shows and panel discussions,
interactive brand activations, collectibles and merchandise, and YOU are
definitely going to be a part of what will make TOYCON great this year!
TOYCON POPLIFE FANXPERIENCE happens on June
28-30, 2019 at the SMX Convention Center, Pasay City.
[The
event is made possible by PLDT Home Fibr, MaxiCollector, Big Boys Toy Store, Filbars,
Great Toys Online, Ano Toys, Arigatoys, Hobbiestock Collectibles, De La Salle
College of St. Benilde, Kramer Toy Warden and main media partner, ABS-CBN. With
thanks to our official residence partner, Tryp by Wyndham Mall of Asia Manila.]
So cheers for TOYCON’s 18th year and
we hope you join us in this ground-breaking international event. Always check
out the TOYCON website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts for more
updates:
toyconph@gmail.com
