Singapore Toy, Game & Comic Convention (STGCC) 2016 Media Preview

The Singapore Toy, Game and Comic Convention (STGCC) 2016 starts tomorrow! Who's excited? I know I am, even more so after attending a media preview yesterday held at Terra at Suntec City's Sky Garden. There will be more booths! More guests! And lots and lots of exclusives and new products available! 

Let's get right into some of the products. Starting off with the ever popular Hot Toys exclusives

From left: Hot Toys 1/6 scale Star Wars Battlefront Jumptrooper, Rey (Resistance Outfit version), Batman v Superman Knightmare Batman, Iron Man 3 Disco Armour and Avengers Age of Ultron  Iron Man Mark VII (Sub-zero version)

Hot Toys Cosbaby

Mighty Jaxx XXRay (front) and Gold Life figures by Huck Gee (back)

Sticky Monsterlab Redmon - Plush

Various posters from Poster Hub 

Metal Phoenix Orb

Various items from Pobber

Assorted figures by Daniel Yu

Collectible Cards and Custom Artworks by Ratch Lin

T-shirts from Xsmashed Gear

..... and many more! I hope you've made plans to snag the items you want. Come event day it's going to be crazy!

We got to meet several guests at the preview. The first set being artists from the local scene. They were artist Rachta Lin, toy designer Daniel Yu, Andy from Andimoo Studios and Xuan Ming from Xmashed Gear.

From left: Rachta Lin, Daniel Yu, Andy, Xuan Ming

They gave a short introduction of themselves and showcased some of their work. On what advice they have to encourage young people in the creative scene. They had the following to say:  

(all responses were summarised and paraphrased) 

Rachta -  The most imoprtant thing is the willpower, passion and the courage to make the first step. 

Daniel - Agreed that passion is key. He feels that as an artist you need to have the mindset of an entrepreneur as at the end of the day you're ultimately running your own business, cultivating your brand and trying to establish yourself. It is a balance of everything.

Andy  - Talked about being an artist as a career. He feels there is a need to demystify the whole artist thing. Some people think that you need to have talent or need to starve in order to pursue a career. He related a story of when he was doing caricature at a shopping mall. There was a rich looking lady who, through conversation mentioned that Andy's parents must be sad with him becoming an artist though he majored in Economics at NUS. In truth Andy's parents are okay with the job he is doing. He mentioned that he made the lady's nose bigger in the caricature. He said that it is important for artists to have industry experience. A lot of the time people do not know what it takes to get there. He feels we need a few "Joseph Schoolings" of the art industry to inspire more young artists. 

Xuan Ming- Said that being an artist nowadays is a new challenge and not so straight forward compared to the old days. Artists will need to think about how to monetise their art. Whether you like it or not it is a business. One needs to know how Patreon and Paypal works for example and to use social media to their advantage to spread out their works and reach more fans.  

The next set of guests comprised artists Emma Rios and Hwei Lim, writer Nick Spencer and toy designer John Paul Kaiser (JPK). 

From left: Emma Rios, Hwei Lim, Nick Spencer, John Paul Kaiser

A Q&A was conducted. On why they think pop culture / creative industry is becoming this big and why so many people are getting into it. 

(all responses were summarised and paraphrased)

Emma - says she loves cinema. Seeing superheroes on the big screen was like a dream come true. Her favourite superhero movie so far is Winter Soldier. She says that there's starting to be too many of them. She thinks the reason people go to these movies to have fun and relax. They take your mind off stuff. The movies help the comics market to be better. 

Nick - agrees that the movies are great for comics as they have brought new people in. They are now more interested in the characters and want to find out so they seek out the comics and from there try out other comics.  

On who were their inspirations.

Emma - she lists Katsuhiro Otomo as her main inspiration. She had read "Akira" when she was 14.

Hwei Lim - lists Yoshitake Amano who did a lot of graphic design and fantasy work. She felt his work was magical. It was the mood, atmosphere and feeling which it gave her and she felt that that was something amazing.

Nick - lists Brian Michael Bendis, Keith Giffen, Peter David and Chris Clariemont. They were a big part of his reading experience.

JPK - lists Picasso and Carlos Ezquerra from 2000AD as inspirations. With regards to toys he lists Huck Gee and Jason Freeny.

On what advice they for young talent.

Emma - never forget to have fun with your work 

Nick - for writing he advises to always finish what you started. The key to learning how to write is learning how to live in someone else's skin, make your characters living, breathing people. 

JPK - He believes in opportunities. If you keep on trying, keep practising and keep putting your work out there people will see it. The more you work the more you improve. The more work you do the more ideas you get. 

One of the most common topics that come up during STGCC is if a guest have tried any local food. This time round we got to witness them. Emma Rios, Hwei Lim, Nick Spencer and JPK were presented with an assortment of local food. There was chicken rice, moon cakes, egg tarts and burbur cha cha. They all seemed to enjoyed it. 

The artists did some live demos for us. Rachta Lin drew a member of the press as Pikachu, JPK customised a figure and Emma Rios and Hwei Lim painted some lovely pieces.

In addition to the catching the many guests at the panels and at the Walk-of-Fame, here's what else you can look forward to:

• A PC gaming tournament, the Overwatch eSports Mountain Dew Cup will be held for the first time at STGCC. The top 2 teams will walk away with a total prize pool of $2500 cash and other exciting prizes sponsored by Razer, Secret Lab and many more. 
• Unveiling of an exclusive mystery 100% BE@RBRICK
• Performances at the Akiba Pop Stage
• STGCC Championships of Cosplay

For more information check out the STGCC site. See you there!