First day at the Singapore Toy and Comic Convention entrance

The Singapore Toy and Comic Con 2008  opened its doors to the public at 11am today at the Suntec Convention Centre Hall 603.  Although I’m not a Bearbrick collector, I decided to go there earlier at 10am to test my luck on whether I am able to receive one of the limited special edition red-colored Bearbrick figure, to be given out free to the first 1,000 visitors.

When I arrived at level 6 of the Convention Centre, the queue in front of me was already at least 100m long!  The queue had formed along the ‘corridor’, from one end of outside Hall 603, and across to the other far end of outside Hall 602!  I checked out the source of the queue and found that there were no indications of whether there were separate queues for pre-registered (online) visitors and walk-in visitors.  The organising staff were not there yet.  Hence everyone just joined the one and only queue there. 

I looked around and surveyed the people there to see if I could find familiar faces but they were mostly very young teens and some adults whom I did not know.  Within 10min after my arrival, another 20m of queue had formed behind me!  At some stage, I felt a bit silly to spend my Saturday morning queueing with hundreds of others to get a free toy (even though it’s an exclusive piece of plastic).

Finally I befriended a guy behind me who seemed alone.  He’s Wing Chye, a Gundam collector from Malaysia.  We chatted for a while and then at around 10.30am, the queue suddenly moved quickly forward.  Apparently, the organising staff had arrived and started directing people into 2 queues.  All pre-registered visitors went to form a new queue on the right while walk-in visitors like me and Wing Chye stayed in the original queue.  We were then given little slips of registration forms to fill in our particulars to hand up at the counter outside Hall 603 in exchange for our booklet, 2-day entry wristband passport and free-gift redemption passport.  The pre-registered visitors on our right received an extra Iron Man poster (that’s all?).

After this, we quickly joined the third entry queue that was on the extreme right to enter the Hall 603.  We had already noticed that third queue when we neared the counter outside Hall 603.  We traced that entry queue to its end and found ourselves back to square 1, which is at the same point outside the far end of Hall 602, and back at where we started when we first arrived!  It was pretty confusing at first and the organisers didn’t expect so many people to come so early.  Clearly this organiser is not familiar with how ‘crazy’ toy collectors can be.  Well now they know and hope they do better next year.

Some people around us were grumbling about the poor queue organising etc.  It was mainly adults who complained and grouched.  The teenagers and kids were too engrossed talking excitedly among themselves.  Fortunately, Wing Chye and I took the initiative to observe the proceedings around us and directed ourselves to the right way.  What is there to complain about as it’s only gonna make you upset on the spot and spoil your mood for the rest of the day.  The rest of us are queuing and going through the same thing anyway.  Just find the solution quickly and move on!

At last, the doors opened at 11am and entry queue started moving forward steadily.  Alas, no one informed us where and how to collect the little red bear.  Hence Wing Chye and I had originally decided that we’d head towards the redemption booth A02 after we enter the hall to check it out.  Luckily, the little red bear was given out to each visitor on the left of the door after entering.  This had to be the most delightful and convenient thing that happened before and during entry to the Hall. 

After receiving our precious little red bear, Wing Chye and I parted ways to survey all the participating booths at the Toy Convention.  I raced towards the Hasbro booth at once and what did I find there!?

To be continued in the next post…