2012 Toy Fair

Hordes of Die-Cast cars on display

Well here it is, the last major toy event for this year. Toy Fair for the second time around was graciously spearheaded by the Die Cast Collectors of the Philippines. Events spearheaded by DCPH (acronym for the group) highlights Die Cast Cars displays and toy stalls that feature rock bottom prices of die cast toys from well known brands like Hot Wheels, Matchbox, and the likes. As a kid, one of my toy staples were Die-Cast cars from Matchbox. It's something that little boys must have in their regular toy diet. While I had lots of them, I really never became fond of cars. I was more into Action Figures. Those action packed animated series that seemed to be lengthy toy commercials for toy companies caught my fancy. From DC to Marvel shows, Mattel produced Masters of the Universe, Thunder Cats and Silver Hawks, GI Joes, Voltes V and Voltrons, and other action packed figures. But I do have a few Hot Wheels in my collections, but these are cars from my favorite movie and TV shows (Knight Rider, Back to the Future, A-Team, and the likes). But nevertheless, I still occassionally buy Die-Cast cars for my son.

Costs about a dollar and a half

Though this event is spearheaded by DCPH, there were also toy stalls that were selling action figures and comic books. I decided not to take photos of those stalls because many of them were the same stalls from the previous toy events. This event is also smaller compared to the Toycon event last June as it only utilized one trade hall (compared to three). The toy displays also featured Die-Casts only. So there were no Toy Exhibits on Action Figures. I also was not able to buy lots of items. Lately, I've been trying to cut down on my toy related expenditures because my main toy lines (6 inch DC and Marvel Action Figures) are either experiencing scarcity in supply or I already own most of them. I know I haven't featured them in my blog yet, but the reason for that is because I'm still thinking of a way on how to present them in this blog. Should I do the same format that other bloggers do (strictly toy reviews)? Or should I present them in a more informative way (i.e. brief character origins/backgrounds before the actual Toy Review). But one thing is for sure, a surge of Superman related toy reviews is coming. I'm going to do it as my own countdown to the Man of Steel movie tribute. Posted below are some of the photos of the Die Cast Toy Exhibits and my hauls from Toy Fair 2012.

Die-Cast cars on Sale

Hot Wheels selling at P70 each

Some rare models are to be found

Disney Cars

Die Cast cars exhibits

That's a lot of Herbies

Volkswagen Beatles

Batmobiles

Toyota Land Cruisers

X-Men and JLAs

Hauls: So yes, I've got a few hauls. Since I'm no longer buying Action Figures that much compared to the previous years, somehow my interest in comic books found its way back in my personal budget. I've been buying comic books and graphic novels lately, back tracking on key issues that I missed out before. I'm also avoiding all the current reboots done by DC and Marvel, these continuity altering events are not my liking. And as much as I can, I'm preventing myself from getting too engrossed with these new unfamiliar universes (though I did bought a couple of New 52 Superman issues). One of the major reasons for that is that I want my comic book collections to have a book end. For Superman, it ends with the last story arc before the New 52 relaunch. For the DC Universe, it ends with Final Crisis (I hated Flashpoint, even if it served as the last Pre New 52 story of the DC Universe). For X-Men, it ends in the imaginary story X-Men: The End, and for the Marvel Universe, it ends with the imaginary story Marvel Universe: The End. So my comic book/graphic novel purchases will mostly be stories before those bookends and possibly one-shots and elseworlds stories (I'm treating the new 52 as an elseworlds story). I could have gotten more in the last Toy Fair, but I got too lazy to browse the comic book stacks. I'm still wishing that the sellers organize their titles alphabetically than just putting them all together.



For my toy hauls, I got two. A 25th anniversary G.I. Joe Quick Kick from the latest G.I. Joe toyline relaunch and a Masked Rider Kuuga Souchaku Henshin toyline from Bandai. I got the Quick Kick figure because I'm planning to customize him as a Bruce Lee figure if I could (though I'm really tempted to collect G.I. Joes, but I hope not). While I got a Kamen Rider Kuuga because lately I'm getting addicted to Super Sentai (specifically Gokaiger Series) and Kamen Rider shows (specifically Kamen Rider Decade Series). I got him because I think he is one of the main cast in the Kamen Rider Decade series. I'm currently searching for copies of that TV series by the way. So Kuuga will join my Kamen Rider Decade, Kamen Rider OOO Sagozo form, and Kamen Rider Ryuki in my toy display along with the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Metal Hero Series Shaider.

One last tidbit in the Toy Fair Event, I nearly lost my camera when I left it in one of the Toy Stalls. Good thing nobody noticed it there, or else I would have never forgiven myself. So this is the last Toy Event of the year, till next time.