The rise of Toy and Comic Conventions

Today is the first day that the San Diego Comic Convention 2008 (SDCC 2008) is opened to the public.  There was a preview night yesterday that was open only to pre-registered 4-day attendees and professionals.  Such toys and comics conventions are very big and popular events in the US, Japan, Hong Kong, and hopefully the trend will catch up here in Singapore too. 

The SDCC is famous for the wide range of exclusive toys that the toy companies release, to be specially sold at the convention only. Hence collectors, traders and fans would swarm there to lay their hands on those ‘rare exclusive toys’, which can become very highly sought after in the secondary toy markets.  However having to contend the huge crowds during the convention can be extremely daunting.  Hence you have to understand why there are premiums involved in those exclusive toys, other than in their supposed limited numbers made.

We just our first Singapore Toy and Comic Convention 2008 (STCC 2008) held at Suntec Convention Centre last month. The turnout as reported in our local newspapers was about 140,000, which took the organisers and sponsors by surprise (actually they shouldn’t be).  We look forward to a bigger, and more fun-filled similar convention next year and the years to come.  There have been talks that this event will be an annual thing in Singapore. 

I also hope for our local STCC to have more exclusive toys specially made by the toy companies for sale during the convention days.  Perhaps this being the very first STCC held in Singapore, industry players were being too cautious as they had no reliable benchmarks to judge the response and potential of such events.  Such toy and comic conventions are very big things in Hong Kong and Japan for several years already.  With our nation’s numerous creative talents and entrepreneurial spirit, I believe that it won’t be long when the scale and quality of our Singapore Toy and Comic Convention surpass those in Asia, and become comparable with that in the US!