Tagcom 2013

Tagcom 2013 Toy booths

The first toy event of the year kicked of this weekend at Robinson's Place Manila. Dubbed as Tagcom, this event featured awesome bargains and deals for the toy collecting aficionados as well as the casual toy buyers. There were also comic books aplenty for those who wanted to get to know more about the characters where the action figures were derived from (mostly DC and Marvel Comics). I think this is the fourth Tagcom that I attended and I noticed that this year's event isn't as well attended as the previous years (but I could be wrong with my estimates). I think there were lesser toy sellers for this year, with noticeable absences from regular attendees Raddj toys and Comic Odyssey. I have no idea why they skipped this year's edition, but despite their absence, there were enough stuffs that were priced at pretty good deals. I've been on my 4th year of serious toy collecting and I noticed that as each years come by, my purchases on action figures during toy events like these are beginning to dwindle (though my comic book purchases have gone up in the recent years). Maybe it's because I've acquired almost all of my needs in my collection. So for events like these, I go hunting for the rarer figures. And this year's Tagcom did not disappoint. I will be sharing my toy hauls below.

Movie Supermen

One of the highlights for my Tagcom attendance for this year is my first display volunteering. I've been with the DC-MOTU group for almost a year and I've been having a great time interacting with fellow DC and Masters of the Universe collectors. So as my way of paying back, I decided to volunteer and represent the group's Action Figure Showcase for this year's Tagcom. Of course, with the group's founder Jeffrey Velasquez on board to also display some of his stuffs, that would mean that we would be displaying some pretty neat dioramas. I volunteered three Superman action figures in my collection with the goal of showing the public Superman's different incarnations in the big screen (and small screen) because there's an upcoming Superman movie called Man of Steel and which is starred by Henry Cavill. Of course the still yet unreleased Movie Masters Superman figure of Henry Cavill served as the main feature of this display theme. And since there aren't any 6 inch Christopher Reeve and Tom Welling (in Superman suit) action figures released, I chose to display the custom figures that Jeffrey (Tom Welling) and I (Christopher Reeve) made. And I'm proud to say that the custom figures that we made garnered some positive comments from the curious onlookers. I actually love our display theme which also included the Dark Knight Trilogy Bat Cave as well as the massive Superman v.s. Doomsday diorama. Moving forward, we are planning to display dioramas of a certain theme in our future display showcases. More photos below.  

DC-MOTU Display

The three layer cabinet

The impressive Dark Knight Trilogy Bat Cave of Jeffrey Velasquez

Movie Masters Man of Steel Superman

Henry Cavill Superman

My Superman Movie Collection

Tom Welling, Christopher Reeve, and Brandon Routh

Custom Superman action figures and Mattel Superman Returns

Smallville, Superman, Man of Steel, and Superman Returns

Massive Superman v.s. Doomsday Diorama of Jeffrey Velasquez

Close Up Shot

GI Joe Diorama

Hot Toys and accessories Replicas

Thor and Hellboy

Darth Vader and Iron Monger

Michael Jordan Action figures

Majority of the Jordan action figures are custom made

Mini Mates

Knight Rider

Justice League

Thunder Cats

Fantastic Four

Ghostbusters

X-Men Blue Team

X-Force

Professor X and his merry mutants

X-Men Gold Team

Uncanny X-Force

Marvel Zombies

DC Universe

Hulks

Deadpools

Wolverines

Deadpools

Hot Toys

Batman

Action Stars

Tony Stark

Manny Pacquaio, Efren Bata Reyes, Michael Jordan

PTK-Marvel

Jeffrey Velasquez's Iron Man Armory Diorama

Custom Tony Stark and the Iron Man armors

War Machine

Julius Dolor's Wolverine

Tagcom Hauls

Action Figure Hauls (L-R Speed Racer, Aquaman, Bat Mite, Super Lois, Rambo,  Hero Clix Superman and Brainiac)

Superman Power Struggle Story Arc

Various Comics at P25 each

COPS First Issue

John Rambo

Well the main highlight of my Tagcom hauls is definitely this Rambo action figure. And no this is not the more popular and easier to find Coleco version. When I first saw this in a bin full of cheap action figures, I immediately bought him because for the past few months I've been concentrating on purchasing vintage action figures that I missed out as a kid. Upon arriving home, I immediately checked the label markings on the figure and was surprised to find out that this was not produced by Coleco but from Anabasis. Now I never heard of Anabasis, and I thought that this might be a bootleg action figure. But I did a research and I found out that Anabasis preceded Coleco. Anabasis was actually the owners of the Rambo films and Coleco licensed the Rambo characters for an action figure toy line based on the Rambo Force of Freedom cartoon series. It seemed Coleco used the original molds of Anabasis and expanded the toy line to incorporate characters from the cartoon series. Value wise, I don't have any idea if this figure would worth something, as this is not the Coleco version but an earlier one. But nevertheless I'm ecstatic to find out that I've got a rare catch. Other hauls that I'm excited to own is the DC Direct All-Star Superman Super Lois, a figure that I've been hunting for years. Superman Power Struggle, the story arc that restored Superman's powers after the Final Night event. A COPS Comic book for my brother that would compliment his COPS action figure collection. And lastly a crazy Batman versus Black Spider comic book that pitted Batman against a Spiderman like character created by DC. He looks like a rip off of Spiderman and Deadshot combined.

Overall, Tagcom was still a fun event for me. And more importantly, I'm happy with my hauls. Now looking forward to ToyCon this coming June.