TOYSREVIL @ Anime Festival Asia Singapore 2013 #AFA13

One sentence essentially describes my experience at Anime Festival Asia Singapore this year: "Packed Like Sardines"! The intensely dense crowd had me shuffling from booth to booth, all the while trying to stay upright and grimacing while folks constantly squish into my backpack (I'd made the mistake to purchase a couple of boxed figures earlier on hahaha). I have nothing but images to show above, of nothing but "people mountain people sea" CROWDS hahahaha

Ironically, I was actually looking for merch from "Gatchaman Crowds" or even the "Gatchaman" movie, and found no traces of any? Seriously?


And a single image to show my visit to AFA13? My selfie with the life-sized Colossal Titan from Attack On Titan (first seen at Wonderfest!)… but of course the problem with "selfies", stuff gets cropped out (I'm on a iPhone3, so do not have a reverse cam-lens ;p).




Anime Festival Asia Singapore returns to Suntec City this year, and after the uninspired Singapore Expo venue last year, it was a positive re-visit, especially within the newly revamped Convention Center.

I had initially worried about the long ticket queues (SGD$10 per Single day entry) as seen from snaps of Friday Day 1 … so imagine my surprise and delight there was literally none to be had on Saturday about 12noon!

The venue is situated at the far-right of the Suntec Convention Center, with the ticketing on level 3, and venue entrance on level 4 directly above.

With the new-fangled atrium and entrance, basically everything else remained familiar, especially the Level 3 gallery, with the entire window-lined floor being the venue for cosplayers congregate, park and present themselves to the masses of camera-clicks.


If you folks are interested to just snap pics of cosplayers and not want to spend a dime for entry tickets, THIS is the place to be! Open to the general public, the spread for cosplayers here can be considered the better ones, IMHO. And this year I noticed a lot of folks utilized "pro-lighting" set-ups, with reflectors etc

And while I had only taken general snaps of the location, I had not (and never had) been able to take as awesome images of the cosplayers like pro-photogs like Shaun Mun does ;p


[Check out more images posted HERE on my Facebook album]
Bandai ALWAYS holds court with their toy-displays, from brands such as Tamashii Nations, S.H.Figurarts et al, and I am always sated with visual candy. One aspect which excited me this year, was figures from their Super Robot Chogokin line being made available to play and touch! I had a swell time pawing the figures, of course in front of the brand rep hahahahaha Nice one, this!



[Check out more images posted HERE on my Facebook album]
Good Smile Co was decent but not rip-roaring awesome as previous years was, IMHO … I wonder why? Would have truly loved to score the blank/nude articulated Figma Male and Female action figures tho, but alas were listed as "Sold Out" on Saturday when I was there … Although I did manage to score some "mystery boxes / blind boxes" of Hatsune Miku Nendoroid Petites :)

There were hosts of other independent vendors as well, and some of them even showcased upcoming new products, like the 1/8th statue of "Levi" from "Attack on Titan"!

Taiwan's BEAST KINGDOM and Korea's KIDS LOGIC had their very own booth (helmed by local retailers The Falcon's Hangar) showcasing a small selection of anime/video game characters, as well as the adorable super-deformed IRON MAN series from Egg Attack, and a sweet OPTIMUS PRIME!


[Check out more images posted HERE on my Facebook album]
Besides toys and cosplayers, I gleamed very little of anything "new" in this asian representation of "otaku culture", or rather I would admit I am but a "tourist" in the scheme of things, familiar only to the animes I know of and like … but then again, I hardly could embrace more beyond the crowds and merch being offered at every corner.

One particular aspect of AFA I enjoyed, was the "Artist Alley", where this year saw a huge focus on relevancy to anime and a representation of artists and their splendid illustrative depictions of existing manga/anime characters, rather than just bootlegged merchandize. But that's just me …

Great to bump into ZiQi of Monsterlittle and HairyAsHell! Truth be told, if I were any further "talented", I would get myself a booth at AFA's Artist Alley any time hahahaha



I remember Gene (and his beaver/prairie dog / above-left) asking me if I felt "old" being in the venue, to which I heartily agreed! Seems the average age of attendees here ranged from 15 to mid-20s maybe? No, I do not have any official stats to back me up here, and yes i do feel somewhat "ancient", but you know what? It will not stop me from loving anime and Japanese Pop Culture anytime soon :)

…although i should seriously pull up my socks on photography, with one of my cosplayer snap being blurred (above-right) *facepalm*!!!