TTF09 WRAP-UP: Q&A with Jack and Eugene (Attendees @ Taipei Toy Festival 2009)

TRE had an online Q&A with two attendees for the recently concluded Taipei Toy Festival [tagged-on-TRE] - namely "Jack" (of Jack Toyland / Toy Collector and small toy seller) and "Eugene" (he who had generously provided many of the TTF-images you see on TRE!) and found out about their impressions for the event.

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TOYSREVIL: First off - thanks for the trouble guys! How many times have you guys been to Taipei Toy Festivals so far? How many days were you there?

EUGENE: 3 times. (Two days).
JACK: Twice. Just One day.

TOYSREVIL: How was the experience this year, compared to last year? Or previous years?

JACK: The same. I think Taiwan is not a big market, except 1/6 figures (due to the designers who live in Hong Kong), I did not find anything really that creative. But I think most artists live in USA or EUROPE … so…

EUGENE: Must say TTF is always about providing established designers or new designers a platform to show their stuff, as every year the title of the fair would suggest 台北國際玩具創作大展.

This year as compared to the previous 2 years that I have attended, my thoughts are:

Venue – Definitely better than previous years - as in the past they always held the event in a shopping mall, no doubt it’s occupying the whole floor but space is still very cramped up. This year they changed the venue to a hall-like premises which is way better as there is more room for people to move around, and queues between popular booths are not colliding into each other.

Exhibitors - Always seeing the usual names from Asia , would be nice to bring in those from other parts of the world.


TOYSREVIL: Variety be the spice of convention life, methinks! Did you enjoy the event? Did you go back during the weekend again, as you intended, Eugene?

EUGENE: Yes and No. Reason being, the artist brought in this year are not hyped up enough to make me want to attend all 4 days. Therefore was only there for 2 days.

I did return, but did not take any photos of the booths, was actually back for Simone Legno autograph session, my wife just had a piece for him to put his mark on.

TOYSREVIL: Did you (guys) score any good toys? Or wish you did or regret not scoring during the event? What do you collect?

JACK: I collect 1/6 figures. I really like the figures made by RC Work's Raymond, but USD 2000 is too expensive for me (The "boat man" aka NING Voyager).


EUGENE: Managed to score all three toy fair be@rbrick exclusives;
[1] 400% The Wonder Fulman (not sure how true but only 500 produced for worldwide sales)
[2] 100% Tokidoki
[3] 100% Jimmy.

Biggest regret for not securing will be the piece by Mark Landwehr - the 'Coarse x Pixie Jaws Switch' which was an exclusive for the fair and limited to only 200 pieces. Why regret? I was at least the first 100 in queue that had gained entry into the fair on the first day and I was at the Pixie booth when the queue was still not so insane. What made me walk away and not purchase obviously was the price, it's at a whopping NT10,000 (SGD500).

But now, after looking at online pictures of the packaging and how detailed this piece is, NT10,000 will be well spent to add this piece to any vinyl collectors' collection in my opinion. Needless to say, the man himself made an appearance on the 3rd day of the fair to put his signature on his creation and priority is given to only those that bought the 200 piece exclusive.

I basically started toy collecting 10 years ago, from 12" figures, then to Star Wars and now only mainly Be@rbricks.


TOYSREVIL: Toy-Regrets are always the hardest to swallow (sorry for bringing it up again boys! ;p). What is your overall impression? Do you think the event was a Success or Failure? And Why?

JACK: Except 1/6 figures, I did not see many creative toys. Only TTF exclusive toys, like Jaws, Rebel Ink…... But I think for many people here - it’s a chance for them to see so many toys in one day.

EUGENE: Being away from Singapore (due to overseas posting) and with no time and spare cash to attend the other mega scale toy fairs or cons like SDCC, Wonder Festival or our very own STGCC, I have to be delighted that at least TFF is something that I look forward to every year as a collector.

To me, the fair has to be successful in some sense as I feel every year collectors or the general public from Taiwan are very more supportive when it comes to this annual event and not forgetting we need to pay to gain entry and there will also be people from neighboring countries that will come attend this event.

TOYSREVIL: You guys gotta try and pop by STGCC tho (heh). Anything interesting that caught your eye? That made you want to own or try to own the toy/figure/s?

JACK: The figures made by RC Work (NING Voyager), M.ak S.A.F.S and Sea Monkey by 3A.


EUGENE: Have to be the full series by Medicom Toys "Where The Wild Things Are", just love everything from the Be@rbricks to Kubricks to RAH to VCD. Really looking forward to their launches, time to set some cash aside for those.


TOYSREVIL: Man after my own 1/6-lurving heart, Jack! Agree with the WTWTA-toys, Eugene - especially lurved the VCDs of the Monsters! LOL ... What's this I've heard about the "heat issue"? (A complaint from last year, although now it's a different venue) Any suggestions to improve for 2010?

JACK: Except the air conditioner did not work on first day morning, the conference hall is ok. But I think they should tell people, if you don’t want to get the gift, you should come to the conference hall at 11:00, not 10:30, because they only allow people who don’t want to get gift enter into the hall after the people who want to get gift. There are 500 gifts, it took me 30 minute and it was very hot there.



EUGENE: In fact the heat issue was this year (partly due to summer weather), on day one the air condition was down and everyone was baked inside the hall. The organizers made a quick effort by getting the management of the premises to open up another hall with air condition to allow attendees to cool themselves there and to my surprise the organizers even distributed bottles of mineral water; And the very night, the organizers even posted an apology message on their blog and ensure that from the 2nd day onwards, the air condition will be back on. Two thumbs up for Monster Taipei!!!

TOYSREVIL: Acknowledging and addressing the problem always goes a long way, IMHO ... What was your most memorable happening/incident/item of TTF 2009?

EUGENE: Apart from those comments above, I still have to say missing out on the Mark Landwehr 'Coarse x Pixie Jaws Switch' will be the most memorable mistake I have made in my years of toy collecting.

JACK: No one in the MINDstyle booth.

TOYSREVIL: How about 2010? You guys looking forward to going again?

EUGENE: For sure I'll be there again. Good to always see what's new that will be coming up, what are the fair exclusives and the artist that the organizers are bringing in.

JACK: More and more toys company locate in HK (due to most toys made in China), I hope I can see more prototypes next year not just different color. Besides, I hope I can see more demonstrations - like the coarsetoys exhibition. I hope I can see something not just buy something.